Delivering speedy justice to a minor and his family, Goa Children’s Court on Thursday sentenced a 23-year-old native of Assam to ten years’ rigorous imprisonment while also ordering him to pay a fine of Rs two lakh in a case of unnatural sex with a 12 year-old boy registered in February 2015 at Old Goa police station.
the goan I network
PANAJI
Solman Ali Mollah was convicted by the Court on July 29 under Section 377 (unnatural sex) and 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation) of IPC, Section 8 (2) (grave sexual assault) of Goa Children’s Act, 2003 and Section 4 (penetrative sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
In the complaint filed by the victim’s mother, her son was stopped by the accused ‘bhaiyya’ while he was returning from the playground at around 5 pm on February 20, 2015. The accused resided in the same neighbourhood and was known to the victim’s family.
Mollah asked the boy to buy some eggs and rice worth Rs 100 from a nearby shop and when the boy went to deliver the items to Mollah, he gave his mobile phone to the boy to play games and proceeded to close the door. After committing the offence, Molah took the minor boy to a shop and bought him an ice-cream and chocolate. Taking this opportunity, the minor ran home.
He informed his mother about the incident only when he couldn’t eat his dinner properly. He complained of uneasiness in his stomach, pain in his anus and blood in his stool.
Medical examination conducted after registration of the offence found evidence of blunt anal penetration and presence of semen in the victim’s anal canal.
President of Children’s Court Vandana Tendulkar, in her order, observed that the victim’s testimony remained unshaken and his mother corroborated it.
“There is no reason to disbelieve the testimony and it is not possible to believe that the victim would falsely identify the accused while letting the real culprit go scotfree,” the judgment observed.
Testimonies of eight prosecution witnesses were heard.
The Court also examined the test reports submitted by Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad which stated that human semen was detected on the underwear of the victim attached during the investigation.
Arguing on the point of sentence, Public Prosecutor K Sanzgiry prayed for imposition of maximum punishment because the minor victim has been traumatized by the act at an early age and it would be difficult for him to come out of such trauma for the rest of his life.
Arguing for a leniency while sentencing the accused, defence counsel Adv K L Bhagat sought to point out that the accused has not had any brush with law prior to this incident and that he has been in judicial custody.
since his on February 20, 2015.
Taking these into consideration, the judgment reads, “In such circumstances, there is no much discretion left to show leniency, which the accused, otherwise, is not entitled to by taking into consideration the nature of crime”.
Sub inspector Siddharth Prabhudessai attached with Old Goa Police station investigated the case.
