KOLKATA: A city court, completing a Pocso trial in just four months, has sentenced a 39-year-old man to 40 years in prison for sexually assaulting his minor stepdaughter repeatedly for three years.
It was the gutsy15-year-old girl who had called the cops herself, with her mother’s support. The torture, which started in 2018, had escalated during the months of the pandemic-induced lockdown.
Her stepfather, a driver from Beniapukur, was also fined Rs 20,000 by the court of the additional district judge, Sealdah, failing which he has to serve an extra year’s imprisonment. The assault survivor has been granted a sum of Rs 3 lakh for rehabilitation.
When the girl called the Beniapukur cops on July 27, she was in distress, and said she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted since 2018 by her stepfather at their home. “She told us she had confided in her mother only recently and received her support,” an officer said. “We arrested the accused the same day. He was charged under Pocso.”
Soon after the arrest, the cops appealed to the court to record the statement of the survivor before a judicial magistrate after the mandatory medical examination. “She was brave and recalled her ordeal in detail. We also gathered necessary forensic evidence,” an officer said.
The cops filed the charge sheet in just over a week and submitted it to the court. The court passed the sentence on November 26, after the trial was completed.
Probe completed in three months
Police sources said SI Anima Biswas, the investigating officer, took just three months to complete the probe and submit the evidence. “She was assisted by SIRamkrishna Das of the same police station,” an officer said.
Several NGOs working in child rights have welcomed the quickness of the trial and the outcome — the compensation, when the survivor and her mother have limited means of survival. In 2018, the Calcutta High Court had passed a judgment in favour of granting compensation to victims whose fundamental rights had been violated.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
