Man sentenced to 10 years RI for sexually assaulting six-year-old neighbour

Thane: A special court in Maharashtra's Thane district has sentenced a man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl.

Special judge D S Deshmukh on Thursday found the accused Terry Jojef Bhonkya (43) guilty of charges under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The court sentenced the accused, a resident of Bhayander, to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 6,000 on him. The amount will be provided as compensation to the victim.

Special public prosecutor Sandhya H Mhatre told the court that the accused lived in the same neighbourhood as the victim, who was six years old at the time of the incident in 2018.

On April 20, 2018, the child's parents went out in the morning, leaving her playing outside their house. The accused took the girl inside the house and sexually assaulted her.

The child later informed her mother about the assault and the neighbours also claimed to have seen the accused coming out of the house, the prosecutor said.

As many as seven witnesses, including the victim and her mother, were examined during the trial, she said.