Thane SHOCKER: 13-year-old girl from Bihar gang-raped for months by injecting her with drugs, accused get…

A POCSO court here has sentenced three men to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for injecting drugs and raping a 13-year-old girl in 2017, noting society should know that perpetrators in such cases are dealt with an iron hand. The drugging and sexual attack resulted in the girl displaying disturbing behavioural changes which needed medical attention and hospitalisation, the prosecution said.

Special court judge DS Deshmukh imposed Rs 50,000 fine on each of the three convicts- Ajit Pathak (29), Aadil Javed Shaikh (31), and Adil Ali Khan alias Kashmiri (29). This amount will be paid in compensation to the victim, who was 13-year-and-9-months old at the time of the incident which occurred in October-December 2017.

A copy of the judgement, delivered on November 27, was made available on Friday.

Special Public Prosecutor Vivek Kadu told the court that the victim exhibited disturbing behavioural changes, which were noticed by her father who returned in January 2018 from Saudi Arabia.

The girl’s parents, originally from Bihar, got her examined by a psychiatrist who diagnosed her with drug addiction. She was subsequently admitted to a hospital in Mira Road, Thane, where the family was staying, Kadu said.

“During her stay at the hospital, the girl revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and drugged by an acquaintance over three months. The acquaintance and two others exploited the girl’s vulnerability and subjected her to repeated acts of sexual abuse,” the prosecution said.

After the girl’s father lodged an FIR, police arrested the three men on August 21, 2018, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

“The accused committed aggravated penetrative sexual assault repeatedly on the minor victim by injecting her with drugs. The offence committed by the accused is heinous. There will be a wrong message in society if minimum punishment is given to them. In view of the seriousness of the case, maximum punishment be imposed as provided in the Act,” the order stated.

The judge observed that the punishment should be commensurate with the act of sexual assault and a clear message should be given to society that perpetrators in such cases are dealt with an iron hand.

The case falls under the provisions of the POCSO Act before the amendment of 2019.

The punishment provided for the offence under Sec. 5(g)(l) punishable under Sec.6 is not less than 10 years and extends to life and is also liable to pay a fine. Therefore, the statute has not given any discretion to the court to award the sentence for this offence not less than 10 years,” the order stated.

Nine prosecution witnesses were examined against the accused.