Recently, the Delhi High Court held that, he absence of visible injuries does not necessarily imply that an assault did not occur.

The Court while upholding the 12-year imprisonment of a man for sexually violating a four-and-a-half-year-old girl.

The single-headed bench of Justice Amit Bansal affirmed the man's conviction for the charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting the child. He stated that the trial court's verdict was sound and lacked any flaws.

“The trial court has correctly observed that injury on the private parts in cases of sexual offences depends on various factors such as depth of insertion, among others. It is not necessary that in every case there would be an injury caused'', said High Court.

"Therefore, the mere absence of injuries cannot be a ground to hold that penetrative sexual assault did not take place," it observed.

Further, the bench verbally mentioned that under Section 29 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, there is a statutory presumption raised against the accused.

Section 29 of the POCSO Act says that when a person is prosecuted for committing an offence of sexual assault against a minor, the shall presume” the accused to be guilty.

“In the present case, the accused has failed to successfully rebut the aforesaid presumption by leading evidence or discrediting the evidence of the prosecution. The appellant (man) has not been able to shake the version of the prosecution and the prosecution has successfully proved its case beyond reasonable doubt,” 

It dismissed the man's appeal against his conviction and sentence, saying that he has not been able to shake the version of the prosecution which has successfully proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

According to the prosecution's account, the incident occurred in June 2017. The child was playing outside her home and went missing during that time. Her father, in search of her, visited a neighbor's residence where he found her.

Upon returning home, the child disclosed that the man had taken her to his house by offering her a "mango frooti" and subsequently sexually assaulted her. The parents promptly reported the incident to the police, leading to the registration of a case against the man at Gulabi Bagh Police Station.

During the trial, the Counsel for the victim argued before the high court that the prosecution's entire case hinged solely on the victim's testimony, which lacked corroboration from medical evidence.

On the other hand, the party submitted that the victim's testimony couldn't be deemed reliable without corroborative evidence due to the presence of significant contradictions.