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Police subsequently filed a chargesheet under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping) and 376-DB (gang rape of a girl below 12 years), along with sections 5(m) (aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a child below 12) and 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
The child told the court that she had slipped while playing in a lane and fallen on bricks, causing her injuries. During the trial, however, all six prosecution witnesses, including the girl and her parents, turned hostile. She also denied knowing the accused or having been assaulted by them.
The child initially told her family that the two men had lured her into the house and sexually assaulted her. Her father lodged an FIR the same day, stating that the family searched for her and eventually found her at the house of one of the accused’s grandmothers, with her clothes stained with blood. Two villagers also allegedly saw the accused fleeing the spot.
Agra: A Pocso court in Muzaffarnagar sentenced two men to imprisonment for the remainder of their natural lives for gang-raping a seven-year-old girl in Dec 2020, relying on DNA and medical evidence despite the child, her parents and three other prosecution witnesses turning hostile during the trial. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on each convict and directed that their sentences run concurrently. The court examined her earlier statement recorded before a magistrate under section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), along with medical and forensic reports. Her medical examination on Dec 12, 2020, had documented fresh injuries and active bleeding, while DNA analysis established a complete match between biological material recovered from the child and the accused’s DNA.
Describing the offence as one that “shakes the conscience of justice”, the court observed that the gang rape of a seven-year-old girl could not be tolerated in any civilised society, particularly given the child’s helplessness and the manner in which the crime was committed. The court held that forensic findings established the crime beyond reasonable doubt and that witnesses retracting their statements did not undermine the scientific evidence. Additional district and sessions judge and special Pocso judge Manjula Bhalotia convicted the two men, who belonged to the same village and were in their early 20s when the crime occurred. Forensic examination also detected male-specific alleles on her clothes.