A Delhi court has sentenced a woman to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a four-year-old girl in 2016, saying it caused immense mental trauma to the victim and her parents.

Additional Sessions Judge Kumar Rajat was hearing the case against Shashi, who was convicted of offences under Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

Convicting the woman of "committing penetrative sexual assault with the minor victim by applying her mouth on the vaginal area of the victim," the court, in a recent verdict, said the act caused "immense mental trauma to the victim and her parents." It said there was no definite formula for imposing the quantum of sentence and it was contingent on the facts and circumstances of the case, the nature of the crime, how it was planned and committed, its motive, the conduct of the convict and all other attending circumstances.

"The object and basic purpose of sentencing is that the offender should not go unpunished and justice be done to victim of crime and the society," the court said.

It noted the aggravating circumstances, which included the nature of the offence, and the mitigating circumstances like the convict's poor socio-economic background, the fact that she was the sole bread-earner in the family having no property, and her medical ailments.

The court said the convict would only be sentenced under Section 6 of the POCSO Act as it was "higher in degree." It then sentenced her to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and imposed a fine of Rs 16,000.

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