Mumbai: A special Pocso court has convicted and sentenced a 28-year-old man to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old student and outraging the modesty of her cousin sister near Jogeshwari railway station in 2016.“Considering the overall evidence on record, prosecution has satisfactorily proved that the accused pushed the sister of victim, went a few distance ahead, he again came back and…sexually assaulted the victim and her sister with intention to outrage their modesty,” special judge Shilpa S Todkar said. The accused was out on bail.The judge granted the convict, Dinesh alias Dayalal Lala Gari, leniency in sentencing while noting that he was the only earning member of his family. The maximum sentence attracted was five years in jail.Among the six witnesses cited by special public prosecutor Geeta Malankar were the two victims, who were aged 17 and 16, respectively, in 2016. The trial commenced only in 2022, and the two women deposed.The incident occurred on the afternoon of July 22, 2016, when the victim and her cousin were walking to college. It was submitted that when they approached a footwear shop, Gari suddenly approached from the opposite direction, pushed the cousin, and touched the victim inappropriately. He continued to harass them, before the girls managed to catch him and alert police personnel patrolling the area. Gari was immediately arrested and taken to Jogeshwari police station.The medical evidence corroborated the victim’s deposition, noting her complaints of chest pain following the sexual assault. While the defence argued that the victim had misidentified the accused, the court pointed out that Gari was caught on the spot immediately after the crime. The judge observed that the victims gave corroborating evidence.
