Thane, Jan 22 (PTI) A special court in Maharashtra's Thane district has sentenced an 83-year-old man to five years of rigorous imprisonment for allegedly molesting a nine-year-old girl.

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Special judge K D Shirbhate convicted the accused Shivram Venkatesh Patkar of offences under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The judge sentenced Patkar to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs 5,000.

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A copy of the order, which was passed on January 5, was made available on Saturday.

Special public prosecutor Vivek Kadu informed the court that on October 12, 2018, the victim was exiting her school when the accused came behind her and touched her inappropriately.

The victim then complained to her father who was standing outside the school to pick her up and on seeing her father, the accused fled the scene, he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)