Youth sentenced to 3 years jail for sexually assaulting minor

A Delhi court has sentenced a 23-year-old youth to three years rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a minor girl here and held that police established his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Jain handed down the jail term to north-Delhi resident Rohit, who had sexually assaulted and injured the 16-year-old girl during Holi last year.
"Rohit is liable for the offence of sexual assault under Section 7, punishable under Section 8 of the POCSO Act. His act also amounts to outraging the modesty of a female by using criminal force, thus he is also liable for offence punishable under Section 354 IPC," the judge said while also convicting him for the offence of causing hurt under section 323 of IPC.

The judge, while awarding the minimum sentence of three years to the convict, accepted the submissions of Rohit that he was young and was a first time offender.
"I am of the considered opinion that it is not a fit case to award maximum sentence," the judge said.
The offence of sexual assault, for which Rohit was convicted, under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act is five years.

According to the prosecution, on March 27, last year, the girl had gone to her aunt's house in Majnu ka Tila here on Holi.
It alleged that while the victim was playing Holi with other children there, Rohit forced her to play with him and when she refused, he molested and assaulted her.

She raised an alarm and was rescued by her aunt and people around, it said, adding that Rohit fled from the spot but was arrested four days later.
During the trial, Rohit had claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case.
The court, after going through the evidence brought before it, convicted him for the offences under the POCSO Act and the IPC.