A 76-year-old man from Vashi has been convicted by the Thane district and sessions court for the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases for sodomising a seven-year-old boy two years ago. Kisan Ingale was sentenced to a simple imprisonment of seven years on Monday.
According to the police, the incident occurred around 8 p.m. on January 18, 2017, when the boy was playing near his residence at a JN 2 type building in Vashi. The accused, a wanderer, took the boy to an isolated pavement and sexually abused him.
“The boy rushed back home and narrated the incident to his mother. She along with her husband found the accused on a nearby pavement and brought him to us,” an officer from Vashi police station said. A complaint was filed by the mother. The case was investigated by assistant police inspector Sudhir Wagh. Five witnesses — the boy, his mother, a doctor, Mr. Wagh, and a panch — were produced before the court.
The accused, who lived on the pavement near the victim’s residence, was convicted under Section 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC, and sentenced to one-year simple imprisonment. He was also convicted and sentenced to seven years of simple imprisonment under Section 4 (penetrative sexual assault) and three years under Section 8 (sexual assault) of the POCSO Act. The punishments will run concurrently.
