LUCKNOW: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court, on Monday, sentenced a juvenile to 20 years of imprisonment for raping a three-year-old girl. The court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the convict saying that the penalty amount would go to the victim. Special POCSO court judge Vijendra Tripathi clarified that if the convict failed to deposit the penalty, he would have to serve three additional months in jail. In this case, at the time of the crime, the accused juvenile was a minor of 17 years of age which was established after his medical examination. However, considering the crime committed by the juvenile as heinous, the Juvenile Justice Board constituted a committee under the POCSO Act to ascertain if the accused was mentally mature to understand the consequences of the crime he was committing. The committee submitted its report on November 11, 2019, saying that the juvenile, at the time of committing the crime, had an understanding of the severity of the criminal offence but he was oblivious of the consequences. Based on the committee report, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) referred the matter to the special POCSO court to hold the trial of the accused considering him a major.
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