MP: Woman sentenced to 10 years in jail for sexually assaulting minor boy

A POCSO court in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore has sentenced a 24-year -old woman to 10 years in jail for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor boy.

This is the first case when a woman was found guilty under POCSO Act in Madhya Pradesh. (Representative Image)

In the judgement, special judge (POCSO Act), Surekha Mishra said, “In the POCSO Act, it is not always that the male will be guilty. Under this act, a woman or a girl is also entitled of the same punishment as a man.”
According to the conviction order, the woman from Rajasthan was 19-year-old when she developed a relation with a 15-year-old boy.
“This is the first case when a woman was found guilty under POCSO Act in Madhya Pradesh. In the said case, it was recommended to provide compensation amount of ₹50,000 to the survivor child,” said Sanjeev Shrivasatva, drict prosecution officer (DPO).
The special court found the woman guilty under Section 5L/6 (sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and sentenced her to ten years of rigorous imprisonment. The woman was also found guilty under Section 363 (abduction) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment.
“In November 2018, a woman lodged a missing complaint of her 15-year-old son at Banganga police station. The boy had gone to the shop to buy milk but he didn’t come back. Later, police found that a 19-year-old girl was also missing and the father of the girl informed that they were in Gujarat. Police recovered them from Gujarat,” said DPO.
During the investigation, the boy said in his statement that the accused girl took him to Gujarat on the pretext of vacation, where she made him work in the tiles factory and had physical relation with him 5 or 6 times. The girl did not allow him to talk to his parents, he added.
In the case, medical report of the boy and girl played an important role.
The DPO said, “The girl was found being habitual to sex while medical report of the boy revealed that the secondary sexual organs of the 15-year-old boy were not fully developed.”
The woman, who is now married and is a mother of a two-year-old daughter, said she will challenge the judgement in higher court because the relations were developed with mutual consent.

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She is a senior reporter based at Bhopal. She covers higher education, social issues, youth affairs, woman and child development related issues, sports and business & industries.
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