Mumbai: Housing society security guard sentenced to 5 yrs in jail for sexually abusing girl inside lift

The security guard, who was present in the lift, then sexually abused the girl.

After she returned home and narrated the ordeal to her aunt, a complaint was filed at the police station concerned and the guard was arrested.

Special Public Prosecutor Geeta Malankar had submitted before the court that the girl in her testimony told the court that on November 6, 2020, when she was alone in the lift, the guard had sexually abused her.

“Accused had been appointed as a watchman in the society. Generally, the watchman are appointed in the society in order to prevent the unwarranted entry of the outsiders in the society….in the present case, accused who is himself a watchman took advantage of the victim who was going to the house by the lift,” additional sessions judge Ashwini D Lokhande said in the order passed on April 30.

The detailed order was made available on Monday.

The court found the guard guilty under section 354(A) sexual harassment of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

While the convict, who was behind bars since his arrest in November 2020, sought leniency, the court said that the victim had faced “mental trauma”, and hence a lenient view cannot be taken.

The court said that the period that he has already spent as an undertrial — 4 years, 3 months and 24 days — will be considered as undergone in his five-year punishment. The court also directed that compensation be given to the victim.