Court Reduces Jail Term For 'Illiterate' Man Convicted Of Sexual Assault

Reduced Jail Term For 'Illiterate' Man. A Delhi court on Thursday reduced the jail term for a man from three years to 18 months. He was convicted of sexual assault on an eight-year-old boy. While upholding his conviction the court reduced his jail term noting that he was 19 years at the time of the incident, and that he 'illiterate'.

The accused had appealed the judgment of a metropolitan magistrate in 2019,  where he was convicted under Section 377 (unnatural offences), sentenced to a jail term for three years, and directed to pay Rs 50,000 in compensation to the victim.

Principal District and Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma said the testimony of the minor victim was of “sterling quality” and that there was no sign of ulterior motive to falsely accuse the man.

The judge noted that it was a case where the victim “sodomised the minor boy and subjected him to extreme physical and mental pain. I find no merit in the appeal and same is accordingly dismissed and the conviction under Section 377 IPC is upheld.” He then passed the order on his sentence on September 23. However, now he has lowered the term noting that he was about 19 years of age at that time and that he is an 'illiterate' person.

According to the report, the incident occurred on 16 March 2008, in West Delhi. The eight-year-old boy was playing with water balloons, when the convict took him away, gagged him and sexually assaulted him, in a house. The elder brother of the victim also stated that his younger brother went to the convict’s house to fill his water balloons, when he heard his cries and he victim told him that the convict did “some wrong thing with him”.

The convict, now a daily wage worker, has already served eight months and 13 days in prison, he was released on bail in February 2009. The Judge further stated that there is no inclination to grant him benefits under the Section 4(1) of the Probation Offenders Act, which provides for the release of such offenders.

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