Mumbai: Special POCSO Court Sentences Three Men To 3 Years In Jail For Harassing 4 Minor Girls

Mumbai, October 24, 2026: The special POCSO court has convicted three men from a Wadala slum for sexually harassing four minor girls who were returning from school in August 2013. They have been sentenced to three years in prison. The prosecution alleged that on August 5, 2013, as the girls were heading home at 5:50 pm, the accused men started shouting at them using abusive language.

The girls claim the accused men then touched them inappropriately and physically attacked them before they managed to flee. The victim's father, who is also the complainant, confronted the men and tried to apprehend them but they escaped. The accused were apprehended on August 7 and identified as Asif Borkar, Faijan Shaikh, and Junaid Shaikh.

They were initially released on bail but the charges were filed in March 2021, and the trial began in August 2024, 11 years after the incident. Public Prosecutor Sulbha Joshi examined the victims and their father, while the defense argued that one victim was hostile and unreliable. However, the court dismissed these claims, stating that time had passed since the incident and the witness's memory was fading, but this did not mean her testimony should be entirely disregarded.

The court accepted the victims' accounts and found the accused guilty of sexually harassing the girls.