A transwoman identified as Sachu Samson alias Shefina has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 25,000 fine for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old minor boy in 2016.
A single bench comprising Justice Aaj Sudarsan, acting as the Special Judge of the Fast Track Special Court (POCSO), sentenced the transwoman under Section 377 (unnatural offense) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 3(d) and Section 4 (Punishment for forcing oral sex on a minor) of the POCSO Act.
Notably, Samson was male by birth but identified as a woman during the trial. In case Samson fails to pay Rs 25,000 as a fine, the imprisonment will increase for one more year.
During the trial, the court noted that Section 377 was only interpreted to decriminalize consensual homosexual activity among adults. As the victim was a minor, the judgment of the Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India of 2018 did not apply to the case.
As per reports, the incident took place on February 23, 2016. Samson met the victim on a train while traveling from Chirayinkeezhu to Thiruvananthapuram. The victim was taken to the public washroom in Thambanoor and sexually assaulted. When the victim refused to accompany Samson, he was threatened.
Later, the victim’s mother read some messages and learned about the assault. She talked to the victim, and details came out. The police worked with the victim’s mother and the accused’s mother to set a trap for Samson in Thambanoor, where the transwoman was arrested.
In the defense, Samson’s advocate claimed that Samson had always been transgender. They also presented a medical certificate as evidence of Gender Affirmative Medical Intervention. In his statement, the victim stated that the accused was actually a man at the time of the crime, but she looked like a woman during the trial.
In its judgment, the court stated that the accused was a man in 2016. Later, he got his gender changed. In 2016, he had oral sex with the child, who is a male. The court said, “Because of this, section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with ‘unnatural offenses,’ will be used instead of section 376 (Punishment for rape).”
