Pay Rs.5 Lakhs Compensation to Minor Victim of Sexual Assault, Directs Calcutta HC.

(By: – Syed Ali Taher Abedi)

In a case of sexual harassment to a three year old girl, The Calcutta High Court have upheld the conviction and sentence of a man under section 6 of POCSO Act for sexually assaulting the girl, not accepting the presence minor contradictions in the statement of the victim’s mother to vitiate the case of the prosecution.

The court has directed the state to pay a compensation of Rs.5 Lakhs to the victim to ensure her proper rehabilitation as well as education.

According the FIR report the minor girl was playing in the Verandah of her room. The appellant called her into his room on the pretext of giving tea.

Thereafter, the mother of the victim heard the screams coming out from the room of the appellant. She rushed there and banged at the door which was closed from inside. After much effort appellant opened the door. The mother found the appellant naked and her three year old girl was also undressed by the appellant, upon inquiring her minor daughter revealed that the appellant had inserted his fingers into her vagina.

When the Counsel for the appellant argued that there were contradictions in the statement of the mother and the statement of the independent witnesses were not taken and victim also could not coherently narrated the incident into the court and the medical report is inconclusive about the act of sexual penetration thus the case should not within the ambit of “aggravated sexual assault “as defined under section 5 of POCSO Act.

The court categorically declared that  the complete penetration is not the sine qua non for the offence of rape or penetrative sexual assault, penetration of any form is sufficient to attract the ingredients of such offences. The court observed that the evolution of the criminal law in the recent past has witnessed substantial changes. From the bipolar jurisprudence between the state and the offender, criminal justice delivery system has shifted to a multipolar dimension involving the victim as a prima participant in the said system encompassing restitutive justice. The statutory recognition of such evolution is found in the incorporation of the definition ‘victim’ in the Code as well as incorporation of section 357 A there in which enjoins upon the state to provide compensation to the victims of grave crimes’