Bangalore, Jan.20: The Karnataka High Court has enhanced the sentence of five years imposed by the special court on an accused convicted under the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences (POCSO), Act, observing that when the statute has prescribed a minimum sentence of seven years for the offence punishable, the Special Judge did not have any power whatsoever to reduce minimum sentence to five years.
A single judge bench of Justice V. Srishananda, sitting at Kalaburagi bench, upheld the conviction handed down to Shaikh Rouf under Section 4 of the Act and Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and enhanced the sentence of the trial court.
The bench said “Awarding sentence of five years to the respondent/accused by the learned trial judge ignoring the fact that statute has prescribed the minimum sentence of seven years for the offence punishable under Section 4 of POCSO Act, is clearly illegal and calls for interference by this Court.”
The prosecution had approached the court challenging the order of the special court dated 07-09-2015, by which the court convicted the accused for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. However, sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment of five years on both counts.
