Vadodara court sentences man to 7-year jail for kidnapping, sexually assaulting minor girl

A Special POCSO Court in Vadodara has convicted and sentenced a 21-year-old youth to seven years of jail for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old minor girl. 

According to the prosecution’s case, the victim's mother had filed a complaint at the Wadi Police Station on November 15, 2023, reporting that her teenage daughter had gone missing from their residence the previous afternoon.

 Following a meticulous investigation, the Vadodara police tracked the minor and the accused, identified as Sameer Sheikh, to Mumbai. Sameer had lured the minor away from the lawful custody of her family under the pretext of marriage, taken her to a relative’s house in Mumbai, and subjected her to sexual assault and kissing her against her consent.

During the trial, the defence argued that the minor had accompanied the accused voluntarily and that a romantic relationship existed between them, contending there was no element of forced abduction. However, the prosecution successfully demonstrated through statutory birth records maintained by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation that the victim was explicitly a minor (15 years and 4 months old) at the time of the offence.

Invoking Sections 29 and 30 of the POCSO Act, the court noted that the law mandates a presumption of guilt and criminal intent against the accused once the fundamental facts of a minor's sexual abuse are established, shifting the burden onto the defence to prove otherwise. The defence completely failed to rebut these legal presumptions.

The court held Sameer guilty under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping a woman to compel marriage) of the Indian Penal Code, alongside sections 7 and 8 (punishment for sexual assault) of the POCSO Act, 2012.