Bail for senior citizen convicted for sexual assault of minor, Bombay HC suspends conviction

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The court suspended the sentence of conviction and directed the applicant to be released on bail on executing a personal bond of Rs 25,000 with sureties in like amount. The court asked him to attend trial court once in six months till the final disposal of his appeal against conviction and in case of consecutive defaults in the same, the prosecution will be at liberty to move plea for cancellation of bail.

Shaikh was convicted for offences punishable under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, along with Section 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC and was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years.

According to the Mumbai Police, the victim aged about 11 years was subjected to sexual assault by the accused, who was 57-year-old at the time of the incident. On April 8, 2016, the victim’s father returned home after work and the minor narrated his ordeal.

He told his father that on the same day, the accused took him to a mobile shop and subjected him to unnatural sexual assault, and similar incidents had taken place five to six times within 15 days. The victim’s father then lodged an FIR. On completion of the investigation, a chargesheet was filed, and the accused was convicted by a special POCSO court in October 2019.

Advocate Prashant V Nayak representing the applicant submitted that he is in custody for a period of nearly six years since his arrest on April 9, 2016, and his appeal against the conviction may not come up for hearing immediately.

He added that the identification of the applicant as an accused was doubtful as the victim had not disclosed his name during a medical examination. Nayak added that according to the police, the victim alleged that the incident occurred in a mobile shop as well public places and there are no independent witnesses in the case, resulting in discrepancies in the evidence adduced by the prosecution.

The court held that the version of one of the witnesses was contrary to the other witnesses regarding the place of incident and as the applicant has been incarcerated for a period of six years, a “case for suspension of sentence and grant of bail is made out.”