Man gets life term for sexual assault of minors

Trials in the remaining three cases, including two under Scheduled Caste (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, are yet to be completed. The police registered four cases into the incidents which occurred on June 15, 25, 28 and July 3. The judgment in the first case, filed on June 28, was delivered on Wednesday.

DGP Rajeev Krishna said, “We have been running the ‘Mission Shakti 5.0’ campaign and all the districts have been directed to take up cases of crime against women on priority and ensure speedy legal proceedings.”

Deputy SP Harshita Tiwari, the Circle Officer (CO) of the local area and head of the team that arrested the accused, filed the chargesheet and followed up the proceedings, told The Indian Express that the chargesheet was filed in the case on August 9 and the court framed the charges on August 22. A request was made to the district court for a fast-track trial of the case. The Special Court (POCSO) completed the trial within 20 working days and the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 1.60 lakh imposed on him, she added.

According to the DGP Headquarters, the incident of minors being targeted came to light after the first case was registered on June 28 when parents realised that their minor

daughter, who had gone to sleep alongside her mother the previous night, was missing from the house. They searched for her and informed the local police after failing to trace

her. While the police were searching for her, the girl returned home on her own in the evening.

During an initial inquiry into the incident, the police were informed about two other minor girls who went missing in a similar manner earlier on June 15 and 25 — two during the early hours and two in the afternoon.

Even as an investigation was launched into the incidents, another incident occurred on July 3. This was also a minor girl. All the victims belong to separate but adjacent villages.

As the primary inquiry confirmed the incidents are being committed by the same accused, a special team of policemen was formed on July 4 headed by the local CO Harshita Tiwari.

Tiwari told The Indian Express, “This was a big challenge to crack the cases since the victims are too small to share specific details about the aggressor. Being a woman helped me interact with the kids, who shared information about the appearance of the accused. All the victims shared specific details and description of the physical appearance of the accused.”

She added, “One of the victims was extraordinarily sharp and she took us to the exact location where the accused had taken her and the place he dropped her later in the evening. This helped us weave in strong evidence in the chargesheet to nail the accused.”

“The accused used to drop all the victims at a small bridge, which is a centre place to their villages. The accused too belong to a village adjacent. We picked up around 15 suspects with similar physical appearance, but the inquiry did not find them involved in the crime. While the police team was looking for the accused, policemen spotted this man matching the same physical details. As the police personnel reached his home and were inquiring about his father, the accused tried to flee. He was chased and caught,” the CO said.

She said they checked his mobile phone which contained incriminating evidence. During interrogation, the accused revealed that he was working as a labourer in Haryana and had returned home a few months ago. He had targeted these children while moving around in the villages. He used to move around on a bicycle and picked up two girls while they were asleep with their mother in the early hours while two others were playing near their homes, Harshita Tiwari said.

The accused used to buy toys, sweets, other articles and even bought clothes for one before dropping them, the CO added.

Harshita Tiwari said the judgment in the remaining three cases are expected to be delivered soon.