Mumbai: Man convicted for sexually abusing minors seeks leniency before court

Ansari on Saturday asserted that he is not a “repeat offender” as per the provisions of the law. The reply filed by Ansari stated that while the prosecution has sought death sentence on the ground that he was previously sentenced to life imprisonment on a similar charge, enhanced punishment like death sentence can be sought only in cases where accused has committed offence after the conviction in previous charges. “In the present case, all the offence are pertaining to the same time and allegedly committed one after another before the conviction,” his lawyer said.

According to the prosecution, on April 7, 2014, when the victim was returning from school, Ansari had approached her near Sion railway station by posing as her father’s friend. He had told the victim that he wanted to share his mobile number with her father and asked her to accompany him. As she followed him, Ansari took her to an isolated building and raped her. He then fled from the spot.

In her statement, the victim had said that after she was raped, an FIR was registered and based on her description, a sketch was drawn of Ansari. He was arrested later that month.

In 2013-2014, several police stations across the city had received complaints of an accused approaching minors with a similar modus operandi. Based on the description given by the minors and CCTV footages from the crime scenes, Ansari was arrested in Khar.

In June 2017, he was convicted in two separate cases of sexual assault and sentenced to seven years in jail. Ansari has also been acquitted in three cases.