NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday deferred for a week the hearing of arguments on quantum of sentence of Brajesh Thakur and 18 others, convicted of sexually and physically assaulting several minor girls in a shelter home in Muzaffarpur in Bihar.
Additional Sessions Judge Sudesh Kumar adjourned the hearing till February 4 as Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha, who had conducted the trial, was on leave. The court had on January 20 convicted Thakur, of several offences including aggravated penetrative sexual assault under section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and offences of rape and gang rape under the Indian Penal code (IPC).
In its bulky judgement running into 1,546 pages, the court had also convicted Thakur of offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 324 (causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and abetment under IPC, section 21 (failure to report commission of an offence) of the POCSO Act section 75 (cruelty to child) of Juvenile Justice Act. The offences entail a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
It, however, acquitted one Vikki in the case for want of evidence. One of the female accused, Rosy Rani, former assistant director of child protection unit in Muzaffarpur, was convicted of offences under section 21(1) (failure to report the commission of an offence) of the POCSO Act. Since the maximum punishment for the offence was six months, which she had already undergone, she was granted bail by the court.
With agency inputs