Auto driver gets 3-year jail term for kidnapping, molesting minor girl

 

Mumbai: The special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) has sentenced a 33-year-old autorickshaw driver to three years of imprisonment for kidnapping and molesting a minor girl.

As per the prosecution case, the girl was dropped by her father at her school in Kherwadi on April 19, 2018. When the girl came out of the school, the accused, who is from Bhandup, offered to drop her at home.

The girl claimed that the accused touched her inappropriately and also offered her water and chips which she refused. The accused later told her that he will take her out for a drive. The girl got scared and jumped out of the autorickshaw near a signal outside the Family Court in Bandra and ran towards the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) building. She approached the security guard there and through him informed her parents about the incident.

The prosecution primarily relied on the testimony of the girl, the security guard and her father.

Accepting the prosecution evidence the court said, admittedly, there is no eyewitness to the incident and the offence of kidnapping was required to be decided on the basis of oral evidence of the girl. Overall, the acts of the accused show that he outraged her modesty intentionally and kidnapped her from lawful guardianship of her parents by giving false assurance to drop her at home.

The court noted that the convict asked the girl her address and took her in the auto­rickshaw on the pretext of dropping her home, but proceeded in the wrong direction—something which hinted at his ill-intentions.