LUDHIANA: A local court has sentenced a labourer to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for unnatural sex with a minor boy in Meherban. The court of additional sessions judge Sonia Kinra also imposed a fine of Rs1,10,000 on the convict, and in default of payment of fine, he will have to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months. The court ordered that out of the fine, Rs1 lakh would be given as compensation to the survivor.On 23 October 2015, Meherban police had booked a 22-year-old accused under Section 377 IPC (unnatural offences) and Section 4 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences ( Pocso ) Act 2012 for unnatural sex with a nine-year-old boy. As per prosecution, on 23 October 2015, the boy’s father (a hosiery worker) got his statement recorded with the police that at 4pm, his son (aged about nine years old) came running home and disclosed to him that a man took him to a plot and committed unnatural sex with him. The father then enquired about the act from his son and son’s friend, and came to know that the accused had committed the unnatural act with his son.After lodging a case against the accused, police presented a chargesheet against him in the court of law. During the trial of the case, the accused pleaded innocence and false implication. In order to substantiate its version, the prosecution examined as many as 10 witnesses including the survivor, complainant (his father), Dr Harpreet Singh who examined the boy, and principal of the private school.The court, after appreciating the evidence on record, sentenced the accused under Section 4 of Pocso Act 2012. Welcoming the judgement, legal expert Amit Tandon said it was a great judgement, as courts needed to take a serious view of crimes against minors, and punish the culprits severely so that such crimes are checked.

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