THANE: A court here in Maharashtra has awarded seven years' rigorous imprisonment to a 76-year-old man for sodomising a minor boy in 2017.
Special POCSO court judge S B Bahalkar, in his order issued on September 9, also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 on the accused, Kisan Ingale, a jobless man living on a footpath in Vashi area of neighbouring Navi Mumbai.
Additional public prosecutor Varsha Chandane told the court that on January 18, 2017, the accused called the boy, then aged six, who was playing with his friends in their building complex, to a secluded place in the area where he sodomised him.
When the boy returned home, his mother found him uneasy. When she inquired with him, the child informed her about the incident.
The boy's parents later found the accused on a footpath nearby and took him to police.
The accused was subsequently arrested and booked under Indian Penal Code Section 377 (unnatural offences) and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The judge, after hearing both the sides, said, "On examination of the evidence, I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved the offence against the accused".
While it is the defence of the accused that he has been falsely implicated in the case, "I find no reason to disbelieve the evidence of the victim".
"Hence, the accused is liable to be convicted," the judge said in his order.