Mangaluru: The additional district and sessions court here has sentenced a 49-year old man to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment under the POCSO Act for sexually assaulting a minor girl for one year in 2016. The judge K M Radhakrishna also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convicted person, Dervi D'Souza, a painter from Kotekar on the outskirts of the city.
The survivor's mother, Leena Noronha, who assisted him in the crime, was also sentenced to 14 years in jail and a fine of Rs 25,000 for offence punishable under Section 17 (abetment of sexual assault) of the POCSO Act. Another accused, Melvin D'Souza who sheltered the woman and the girl was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 30,000 for failure to report the case.
The prime accused Dervi D'Souza was also sentenced to seven years and fined Rs 25,000 under IPC section 366 (abduction) and two years for offence punishable under IPC section 343 (wrongful confinement). The sentences will run concurrently, the judge said. According to the charge sheet, the survivor, who was aged 15, was staying with her mother in a house after the death of her father. Dervi D'Souza frequently visited the house and financially helped Leena. During one of his visits in 2016, he sexually assaulted the girl. When the victim told her mother about it, the latter backed D'Souza who was allowed to continue the assault.
When neighbours started expressing doubts, Dervi D'Souza took the girl and her mother to Melvin's house in May, 2016, where he continued the sexual assault. On December 17, based on definite information, the district child protection unit raided the house and rescued the girl. Based on her statement, the Ullal police registered a case against the three accused persons and a charge sheet was filed after detailed investigation. Special public prosecutor Venkataramanaswamy examined a total of 20 witnesses during trial. The judge, in his order, also directed the chairman of the district legal services authority to pay Rs 1 lakh to the survivor as compensation. (PTI)
