DRIVER GETS 7-YR RI FOR MOLESTATION

An autorickshaw driver was sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment for outraging the modesty of a seven-year-old girl last year. First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Suneetha Kunchala pronounced the judgment on Monday.

The sentence was delivered in about four and a half months from the date the complaint was filed in September last year.

The accused, Mohd Nayeem, 35, was hired to take a seven-yearold-girl to school and drop her back regularly. On September 29,

2019, when he came to pick up the child, her father told Nayeem to drop her at a relative's house in the evening, where his family was to attend a function.

Nayeem did as instruucted. After he left, the girl started weeping.

When asked about the reason she narrated her ordeal to her parents. After dropping all other schoolmates, the auto driver made her sit on his lap, forced her to hold his private part and pressed her all over th body.

Afterwards he warned her not to disclose the matter to anyone in her family and dropped her as instructed at her relatives’ house.

The parents filed a complaint at the Nampally police station and the police investigation started and soon a chargesheet was filed.

During the trial in a child-friendly court, which specifically deals with cases tried under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the accused was found guilty under Section

9(m) and Section 10(d) of the POCSO Act, and under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code and was convicted under Section 235(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the police said on Monday.