Not identified by survivor, Pocso convicts get bail
Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court suspended the sentence of two men convicted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, and granted bail, since the survivor had failed to identify them during the trial proceedings in the district court.
The two appellants had been sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment by district court for allegedly threatening, extorting, and forcing a 16-year-old boy into performing oral sex. However, HC observed that the survivor neither identified the accused in court nor gave a clear description during his testimony.
Justice Urmila Joshi Phalke, presiding over the single-judge bench, noted that there was no substantial evidence to support the conviction, observing that the survivor could not confirm the identity of the accused and that no medical evidence of sexual assault was presented.
The survivor, during the district court trial, had stated that the assailants had their faces covered with scarves during the incident. Additionally, the victim's friend, the only other witness present at the time, also failed to identify the accused in court.
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