Security guard gets 20-year jail term for raping 11-year-old girl
The convict’s friend Arun Mhaske, who worked in the same building as the lift operator, was acquitted of the charge of helping and encouraging him owing to lack of evidence
MUMBAI: The sessions court has sentenced a 30-year-old security guard, Anil Singh, to 20 years rigorous imprisonment for raping an 11-year-old girl who lived in the building where he was employed. The convict’s friend Arun Mhaske, who worked in the same building as the lift operator, was acquitted of the charge of helping and encouraging him owing to lack of evidence.
According to the prosecution, Singh obtained from the girl her grandmother’s phone number. On August 15, 2021, he called her and demanded to see her. Upon meeting her, he took her to the back side of the parking lot and the common washroom of the building and raped her. He also threatened to harm her parents if she disclosed the incident to anyone.
The matter came to light after the girl’s mother observed that she was constantly crying and under a lot of stress, with her studies and appetite being severely affected. A month later, in September 2021, the mother spoke to the girl and she disclosed the incident.
Subsequently, a case was registered at the Kanjurmarg police station under sections 376, 354 and 354-A of the Indian Penal Code and sections 6 and 10 the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
In court, the girl deposed that her father had earlier complained about Singh and his habit of following children around, after which Singh told her, “Your father complained about me, now I will also see.” She told the court that the second accused, Mhaske, would tell her that Singh was waiting for her and one day, after Singh had raped her, she saw both of them laughing together.
The defense submitted that the girl’s family had lodged a false complaint against Singh, since the building authorities did not remove him from the job following the complaint lodged by the girl’s father.
The court, however, pointed out that the defense didn’t bring anything on record to prove their point.
“It is clear from her testimony that she had tried to cope up and save herself from the sexual assault. She tried to survive in the circumstances. When the entire incident was beyond her control, she narrated the incident to her parents,” observed special judge JP Darekar while convicting Singh on October 24. On the charges levelled against Mhaske, the court said the prosecution did not provide any evidence to prove that he abetted the act.