Mumbai: The Thane special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSOA) court has convicted a 22-year-old man who was accused of committing rape on a 13-year-old boy in 2022, thereby sentencing the man to suffer 10 year of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 20,000.

Calling the offence, a heinous one, the court held that looking at the seriousness of the crime, the accused should be awarded with the maximum punishment, thus to give a clear message to the society.

“The accused has committed serious offence with the minor boy, which has affected him mentally. The offence committed by the accused is heinous and in view of seriousness of the case, maximum punishment has to be imposed, as provided in the Act, so that it gives clear message to the society. Also the accused has sodomised the minor, which demonstrates the mental state or mind set of the accused,” held the court while passing its verdict.

The case dates back to April, 2022, when the 13 year old victim boy, a Mira-Road resident, complained of he having pain in his private parts. When shown to the local doctors, they found amiss and hence directed the child’s case to KEM hospital.

Reports from KEM hospital confirmed that the boy was facing problem, due to the sexually transmitted disease. It was then that the boy revealed that he was sodomised by his 22 year old neighbour.

The accused had however denied the allegations, stating that it was a concocted case since there was a delay of almost 15 days in registering of the offence and that he was falsely implicated by the victim’s family in the entire case.

The court, however in its orders upheld the prosecution’s claim that the tests conducted on the victim, required a minimum span of around 15 days for the results to confirm that the victim was suffering with a disease which could have only transmitted sexually. The evidence given by victim was also one of the important point for the prosecution to prove its case beyond any reasonable doubts.