Itanagar: A special court in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lepa Rada district designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on Saturday sentenced a man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a minor girl.
The court convicted one Kyabin Sikom also known as Pakbin Sikom, a native of Sikarijo village in Upper Subansiri district, under Section 06 of the POSCO Act for ‘aggravated penetrative sexual assault’ on the minor.
Officials said the incident took place at Sikarijo on September 08, 2021 when Sikom called the victim and her sister (the daughters of his brother-in-law) to his house for a casual visit.
As the victim and her sister were regular visitors, they being relatives, Sikom asked the victim to stay in his house that night. While the victim’s sister left after some time, the minor girl stayed back.
On finding the victim alone, Sikom, who was drunk by then, took her inside the “TV room” where he first undressed her and later forcefully raped her by covering her mouth.
An FIR was later lodged after the incident was reported by the family members of the victim and a case under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act was registered at the Daporijo police station against Sikom.
Following a chargesheet, the case was forwarded for trial to the special court where Judge Tage Halley convicted Sikom for his offence and sentenced him to 20 years of jail.
Sikom, who pleaded guilty for his offence, has also been ordered to pay a fine of Rs 1500/- by the court, officials added.
