PESHAWAR: A child protection court has convicted a juvenile offender for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old boy and awarded him seven years imprisonment and Rs1 million fine.

It convicted the accused under Section 377 of Pakistan Penal Code (unnatural offence) and section 53 (child sexual abuse) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act.

The judge extended benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the convict under which the period of his imprisonment prior to his conviction would be counted in his prison term. She declared that after completion of half of the prison term of the convict he should be released on probation for good conduct and be placed under the care of his father by executing a single surety bond of Rs50,000.

The court ordered that as the purpose of the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018, was not punitive but reformative, thus the superintendent of Peshawar Central prison was required to send the said juvenile convict to a juvenile rehabilitation centre required to be established by the government under section 20 of the JJSA 2018.

The judge directed that a copy of the judgment should be sent to the KP Chief Secretary and secretary home to ensure compliance of detention of the convict in a juvenile rehabilitation centre.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at Mathra police station on Aug 10, 2019, on complaint of the victim’s father under section 377 PPC and section 53 of the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act.

The complainant had stated that his minor son had gone out for playing and when he returned back in injured condition he told them that the accused, who was running a grocery shop near their home, had taken him inside his shop and assaulted him.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2021