Court: Minor's consent not legally valid
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on the accused.
Mumbai: The Thane sessions court on Tuesday, while sentencing an accused to seven years’ imprisonment for raping a teenage girl in 2015, said that a minor’s consent is “no consent in the eyes of the law”. The accused was also awarded one year imprisonment for for trespassing.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on October 2, 2015, when the victim, then aged 16 years, was alone at her home in Kajuwadi locality, as her parents and brother had gone out.
While the teen was cooking food, the accused, a resident of the same locality, sneaked into the house, gagged her, and then raped her.
When the victim's mother knocked on the door, the accused tried to hide. The victim opened the door and narrated the entire incident to her mother.
The neighbours too gathered there and managed to catch hold of the accused and thrash him. But he managed to escape, the prosecution said.
The victim and her parents then went to Vartak Nagar police station and filed a complaint against the accused, who was subsequently arrested.
Judge Jadhav said that it came to light that even before this incident, the accused had sexual intercourse with the minor, who was unaware of the consequences. “Considering the age of the victim, her consent is no consent in the eyes of law,” he observed.
It is clear that the accused entered the victim's house with an ulterior motive and sexually assaulted her, he said, while pronouncing the accused guilty on charges of rape and house trespass, and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on the accused.