Hyderabad: A city court on Monday, April 6, sentenced a 22-year-old mason to five years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting five minor girls in 2020, with a special sessions court also imposing a fine of Rs 20,000 on the convict.
Special Sessions Judge G Uday Bhaskar Rao, presiding over Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) cases at Haca Bhavan, convicted Abdul Salman of Ghousenagar, Bandlaguda, under sections 354 (assault or criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 12 read with section 11 (sexual harassment of a child) of the POCSO Act.
According to the prosecution, Salman had in January 2020 lured five girls, aged between five and nine, into a hut near the Ghouse Nagar water tank on the pretext of showing them magic tricks. Once inside, he allegedly showed them pornographic videos, physically restrained them and threatened them into silence before fleeing.
A case was registered at the Chandrayangutta Police Station.
The victims’ statements were recorded at the Bharosa Centre, a child-friendly facility, and the centre’s team provided sustained counselling and emotional support to the survivors and their families through the course of the trial.
