Man gets 7-yr jail term for unnatural sex with 8-yr-old

Mumbai: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court has sentenced a man to seven years' imprisonment for sodomising an eight-year-old boy. The court, while awarding the sentence, observed that these days, the number of offences against children had increased.

According to prosecution, on September 10, 2013, the victim was playing outside the house. At around 2 pm, he returned home with `8 and tamarind in his hand. The victim's mother enquired how he got the money and the tamarind to which the boy said that the accused, Shivnath Sharma, had given him the same. That evening, the victim went to the toilet and experienced pain while cleaning himself up. He only told his mother that his anus was paining but refused to reveal anything further. Suspecting something was amiss, his mother took him into confidence after which, he narrated his ordeal to her. The victim told his mother that the accused had given his friend a biscuit packet and asked him to go home after which, under the guise of playing hide-and-seek, the accused sodomised the victim and threatened him not to disclose anything to anyone.

The victim's mother barged into the accused's house and demanded to know the truth. The accused, however, evaded answering and ran away. At night, when the victim's father returned home from work, his mother narrated the entire incident to him and the duo registered a FIR at Mankhurd police station.

The police carried out a panchnama and seized a bed sheet from the spot where the victim said the accused had sodomised him. The police also seized the accused's clothes and sent them to a forensic laboratory.