Neighbour gets jail for sexually abusing infant

Showing severity in a case of sexual abuse of a child, the Bombay high court upheld the conviction of Santlal Yadav for having unnatural sex with a 14-month-old girl.

The court, however, shortened his life imprisonment sentence to 10 years, as he had not fully penetrated the child because of an alarm raised by the girl’s mother and the neighbours.

The incident dates back to March 3, 2001 when the child’s mother, Yadav’s neighbour, left her daughter in his house in Ulhasnagar as there was a power cut in her house.

According to the prosecution, while she went to another neighbour’s house, the baby was asleep in Yadav’s house. The mother rushed back to Yadav’s house after a boy playing in the lane told her that her daughter was crying.

When she rushed back to Yadav’s house, she saw that her daughter was bleeding from the anus and Yadav had covered himself with a blanket. While neighbours gathered around the house, Yadav left the house discreetly.

Yadav, arrested the same evening after the girl’s mother filed a complaint, was convicted under section 377 (unnatural offences) by a sessions court in 2002. In his appeal before the high court, Yadav had contended that he was implicated in the case and the child’s mother, instigated by the crowd that gathered outside his house, filed a complaint against him.

But the court was not convinced by his argument. The judges observed that there were semen and blood stains on the quilt that Yadav had used to cover himself and they matched with the blood group of the child. Therefore, the prosecution had substantiated its claims, the court said.

Upholding Yadav’s conviction but modifying his quantum of punishment, justice BH Marlapalle and justice Roshan Dalvi stated in their order, “The agitated crowd that had gathered wanted the accused to be brought to book. That itself reflects the demands of the society from the criminal justice system.”