HC reduces life sentence in POCSO case, cites no valid reason for penalty

The Karnataka High Court has reduced the sentence of an accused in a POCSO Act case from life imprisonment to 10 years, emphasising the need for valid reasons when imposing the maximum penalty.

The accused, a 27-year-old man from Chikkamagaluru, had his appeal partially allowed by a division bench consisting of Justices Sreenivas Harish Kumar and C M Joshi. However, the court increased his fine from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000.

The case involved the accused befriending and repeatedly sexually assaulting a minor girl in his neighborhood in June 2016. The girl's mother filed a complaint in December 2016 after finding that her daughter was pregnant.

A DNA test confirmed the accused as the biological father. The police registered an FIR and filed a charge-sheet following their investigation.

On June 11, 2018, a special court in the district headquarters town of Chikkamagaluru sentenced the accused to life imprisonment under Section 6 of the POCSO Act and imposed a Rs 5,000 fine after finding