A 27-year-old man was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for attempting to kill a minor girl after she refused his advances. The decision was taken on Tuesday by a court in Maharashtra's Thane. Special Judge (POSCO) VV Virkar convicted the accused under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act regarding the incident that took place in 2018.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 26,000 on the accused and ordered that the fine amount be given to the victim, who was 14 back then and studied in Class 7 when the incident happened, news agency PTI reported.
Special Public Prosecutor Rekha Hiwrale stated before the court that the victim and the accused knew each other as they resided in the same locality in the Bhayander area of Thane.
The accused used to stalk the girl and tried talking to her. However, the girl did not reciprocate and instead complained to her mother who reprimanded the man. However, the accused did not give up and continued making advances towards the minor girl. As a result her mother began accompanying her to school, PTI reported.
The incident occurred on January 3, 2018, when the girl was on her way to her school along with her mother. The accused followed them too, pushed the girl's mother aside and attacked the minor with a knife on her face, hands, back, and chest. Following the attack, the passers-by rushed the victim to a local hospital where she underwent treatment for the stab wounds, PTI reported.
The prosecutor stated that the judge held in her order that the prosecution had successfully proved all the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubt. She also stated that a total of 12 prosecution witnesses were examined to prove the charges against the accused, PTI reported.