Kolkata, Dec. 4 -- The Calcutta High Court has upheld the conviction of a man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2016, holding that the victim's sole testimony provided a consistent and reliable account sufficient to determine guilt.
The judgment was delivered by Justice Tirthankar Ghosh. The incident occurred in October 2016. The prosecution case stated that the accused took the minor into a kitchen, disrobed her and touched her private parts. The written complaint was lodged by the victim's mother, following which a woman sub-inspector commenced the investigation. She collected the relevant materials before the case was transferred. The subsequent investigating officer completed the probe and filed the chargesheet under Section 8 of the POCSO Act before the Special Court.
The victim's statement before the magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC and her deposition before the trial court were noted to be consistent in material particulars. A medical officer examined the child and recorded no external injuries, though medical notes and collected samples formed part of the evidence. The court recorded that the absence of injury did not conflict with the core facts narrated by the victim. The defence raised several objections during the appeal, including delay in reporting the incident, alleged tutoring of the child, inconsistencies across witness statements and political rivalry as a suggested motive.
The court noted the submissions and observed that the accused did not pursue the political rivalry claim during his examination under Section 313 of the CrPC. After reviewing the record, the court treated the inconsistencies highlighted as minor and not affecting the substance of the victim's version. The court held that the victim's evidence met the standards required for conviction without corroboration. It was further observed that once the foundational facts of the offence were established through the child's testimony, the statutory presumptions under Sections 29 and 30 of the POCSO Act applied. The accused failed to rebut those presumptions.
While upholding the conviction, the court noted that the appellant had remained in custody for about one year and six months after the trial court's sentence and that nearly nine years had passed since the 2016 incident. Taking these factors into account, the court reduced the sentence to three years' rigorous imprisonment, while keeping the fine imposed by the trial court unchanged.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.