Tivim resident sentenced for assaulting minor
THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Goa Children's Court has sentenced a 40-year-old man from Volvonnem, Tivim, to one year rigourous imprisonment and has fined him Rs 1 lakh for assaulting an eight-year-old classmate of his son with a school bag and for insulting him in February 2013.
As per the chargesheet filed by Mapusa Police, Santosh Khajnekar, native of Sawantwadi and resident of Tivim, at around 8 am on February 1, 2013 stopped the victim, who was studying with his son in Std III of a local school, and assaulted him physically with the black colour schoolbag of his son thereby committing the offence of child abuse under Goa Children's Act, 2003 and intentionally insulted him with filthy language. As per the victim's statement, Khajnekar hit the minor boy hard on his face and back with the school bag and threatened that if he disclosed the incident to his mother, he would also assault the boy's mother.
The incident came to light only on February 8, 2013, at around 8 pm when the victim's mother was bathing him. The boy wasn't letting his mother soap his back and complained of pain in his ear and on the back. The mother then noticed that his face and back were swollen and questioned the child, who opened up about the incident. He told his mother that he didn't know his friend's father prior to this incident. She then applied oil on his back and ear and took him to Asilo Hospital for medical attention the next day. Upon conducting a check up of the boy, the medical officer informed the mother that it was a medico-legal case.
The Court observed that the hurt certificate clearly listed discharge from left ear and abrasion in left upper back and in his deposition, the medical officer stated that these injuries could have been inflicted with a schoolbag. "Nature of the injuries tallies with the cause and nature of the incident... There is no reason to disbelieve the doctor who is an independent witness," reads the judgment.
Children's Court president Vandana Tendulkar, in her judgement, has also declined to accept the defence that a false complaint was filed against the accused on account of previous enmity. The Court pointed out that there is no material on record to prove this claim. "The victim was on his way to school and had not caused any grave or sudden provocation to the accused by any action in any manner," the judgement stated. While Public Prosecutor Nita Marathe argued for longer sentence, defence counsel N Shirodkar prayed the Court to be lenient as the accused was the only earning member of his family and he has two young children. However, citing the settled position of the law about protecting the interest of children, the Court ruled that children should not be allowed to be abused by anti-social elements and that a deterrent needs to be laid down.
