Delhi HC sentences man to life term for sodomy

New Delhi: The Delhi HC has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for sodomising a three-and-a half-year-old boy, observing that the child was subjected to traumatic and brutal sexual assault. 

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel dismissed the man's appeal and upheld a trial court's order convicting him for the offences of aggravated penetrative assault under the POCSO Act and kidnapping and wrongful confinement under the IPC. 

The bench noted that the child was "too young to depose" in the court and the failure to examine him was not fatal to the prosecution's case. "The victim was a young three-and-a-half-year-old child and was subjected to traumatic and brutal sexual assault by the convict. 

In the circumstances, the court does not find any reason whatsoever to interfere with the sentence awarded to the him for the offences," it said.

The incident took place on February 11, 2014, when the child's father had come home to have lunch while he was playing outside his house. When the boy did not return home for some time, he asked his wife to search for him and later lodged a missing complaint at Madhu Vihar Police Station.