An offence involving abuse of child victim is unpardonable, the Delhi High Court remarked while refusing to lower the sentence awarded to a teacher, who was convicted for sodomising a 7-year-old boy.
Justice Subramonium Prasad said releasing such convicts “by reducing the sentence will send a wrong signal to the society and will be against the purpose for which POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences ) Act was enacted”.
The court rejected plea of Jitender Kumar Goswami, who was in November 2017 convicted by a trial court here for sodomising a boy.
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Goswami was sentenced to two and a half years of imprisonment for the crime. In his plea, Goswami stated that he has already undergone more than 28 months of imprisonment and pleaded to be let off with the imprisonment as he is a teacher and a family man.
“Keeping in mind the nature of offence, this court is not inclined to accept the submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioner [Goswami] to reduce the sentence awarded to the petitioner to one of sentence already undergone,” the court said.
It noted that the first appellate court was “not happy” with the sentence awarded to Goswami, which viewed the sentence awarded to him was on “the lower side”.
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The case against Goswami was registered on the complaint of the victim’s father. The victim had told the police that on June 16, 2012 when he was playing at his terrace in the afternoon, he found an injured pigeon.
The victim took that pigeon downstairs and went to a friend’s house and asked him whether he would keep the bird. His friend told him that he could not keep the bird but he knew one person who keeps pigeons as pets.
When the victim went to the man’s house, he was told that the latter pets pigeons at his terrace. The victim took the pigeon to the terrace where he found Goswami. When the victim asked him whether he keeps pigeons as pets, Goswami answered in affirmative and the victim handed over the injured bird to him.
In the chargesheet, it is stated that Goswami then sodomised the boy. When the boy narrated the incident to his parents, they lodged the FIR.