Now Reading: Delhi HC upholds POCSO conviction of man who sodomised homeless boy, 11
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Delhi HC upholds POCSO conviction of man who sodomised homeless boy, 11
Delhi HC upholds POCSO conviction of man who sodomised homeless boy, 11
The Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction of a man for sodomising an 11-year-old homeless boy, saying a child surviving on the streets cannot be expected to recall dates or clothing…
The Story in Brief
The Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction of a man for sodomising an 11-year-old homeless boy, saying a child surviving on the streets cannot be expected to recall dates or clothing with the accuracy of a settled person. Justice Chandrasekharan Sudha rejected the appeal on August 10, backing the trial court’s 2025 conviction under Section 377 IPC and the POCSO Act.
The court reduced the sentence from 20 years to ten, noting the offence occurred in 2016 when the minimum sentence under Section 6 POCSO was a decade. The boy, then 11, was sleeping under a Kashmere Gate bridge when the accused assaulted him. Social workers who found him later reported the case. The court said minor discrepancies in his testimony did not weaken the consistent account of forcible anal intercourse.
The Indian Opinion
The court’s recognition that a rag-picking street child cannot testify like a settled adult is refreshingly realistic. Too often, survivors from vulnerable backgrounds are disbelieved for failing to give a perfectly chronological account of trauma. The judgment rightly focuses on the core allegation that remained consistent. Yet, the sentence reduction from 20 to 10 years for a brutal assault on a minor will trouble many. If the offence now carries a 20-year minimum, does the leniency for past crimes signal that older statutes offered less deterrence for the most vulnerable victims? The next high-profile POCSO appeal will test whether this reading holds.
Source: hindustantimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
