New Delhi: A 25-year-old youth, who was facing trial for sexually harassing a minor girl, has been sentenced to three years in jail by a Delhi court which held that such an assault is not only physical but also mental for a child of tender age.

Additional Sessions Judge Deepak Garg handed down the jail term to north-west Delhi resident Bijender for molesting and sexually harassing the seven-year-old girl in a public toilet and also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him.  

“This court cannot lose sight of the fact that, he (Bijender) took a small girl of seven years to a public toilet and molested her. Such type of assault is not only physical but also mental for a child of tender years and it comes in the way of progress of the child in life,” the judge said.

The court held him guilty for the offences under section 354A (sexual harassment) and 354B (assault or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe) of the Indian Penal Code.  

The court relied on the testimonies of the victim and her father, who had lodged the complaint, while rejecting the contention of defence counsel that there were contradictions in statements of prosecution witnesses.  “Minor contradictions, inconsistencies, embellishments or improvement on trivial matters without affecting the case of the prosecution, should not be made a ground to reject the evidence in its entirety,” the court said.

According to the prosecution, on the evening of March 25, 2013, the child had gone to use a public toilet with her cousin and when she returned home, she told her father that she was sexually harassed by Bijender.

The girl in her statement to the police, said, that Bijender pulled her forcibly inside the toilet, which was near her shanty, and sexually harassed her.  On hearing her scream, her cousin came to the spot with the public and beat Bijender up, after which he was handed over to the police.

Charges were framed against him under section 354A, 354B of the IPC and section 8 (sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was convicted for the offences under IPC but charge under POCSO Act was dropped by the court on the ground that the case did not fit in the definition of sexual assault.

Bijender had pleaded innocence and claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case.