67-yr-old man gets 10-year rigorous imprisonment for sexually abusing minor

Ahmedabad district special POCSO judge PA Patel convicted Suresh Sharma, 67, in a 2014 molestation case and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment on June 23.

The judge has also imposed a fine of Rs20,000 and, if the convict fails to pay the fine, he will have to undergo an additional three years of imprisonment.

The judge also directed police commissioner AK Singh to take action against then Sabarmati PSI KM Chhasia for negligence in probing the matter. It has also given directions for a copy of the order to be sent to Singh.

The special POCSO court also observed Chhasia’s attitude was suspicious from the start. Though the victim had lodged a complaint on January 17, 2014, Chhasia registered a case of sexual assault after two days. Similarly, the then Mahila crime branch PSI UC Ninama had submitted the statement of the eight-year-old victim to Sabarmati police station, but the PSI did not submit it before the court till the trial was over. The court also observed Chhasia, who was the investigating officer in the case, had not bothered to take the victim’s statement in the presence of a woman cop. The judge stated the PSI did not show the victim as a witness in the chargesheet.

The court observed that it was because of the public prosecutor’s application that the victim’s statement was recorded by the woman cop. The judge observed that Chhasia had not followed the procedure laid down under the POCSO Act, hence action should be taken against him.

Sharma owned a mobile phone recharge shop in the victim’s locality in Sabarmati. He had lured her on the pretext of giving her a chocolate and touched her inappropriately.

Public prosecutor AM Gulabani argued that though it has been five years since the POCSO Act came into force, yet there is a rise in such cases. He called for the accused to be given the harshest punishment.

Defence advocate RK Patel pleaded for minimum punishment on the grounds that the accused had various age-related infirmities.