New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has upheld the sentence of 15 years of rigorous imprisonment awarded to a man for committing aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a four-year-old girl, saying that the nature of the offence warranted no leniency.
Justice Mukta Gupta dismissed the appeal by the convict and upheld the conviction of the appellant under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the consequent order of sentence passed by the trial court in 2017.
The high court said that even though the appellant has placed on record certificates of appreciation from Tihar jail indicating that he has now reformed himself and that his conduct in jail was satisfactory, it found no error in the order on sentence and rejected his plea for awarding the minimum sentence.
This Court finds no error in the impugned judgement of conviction of the appellant for offences punishable under Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) POCSO Act and section 342 (Punishment for wrongful confinement) IPC Considering the nature of the offence, (which) does not warrant leniency by awarding the minimum sentence prescribed to the appellant, this Court finds no error in the impugned order on sentence. Consequently, the appeal is dismissed, the court said in its order dated July 4.