Dere Sachin Pravin, 39, was convicted before the state courts on three counts of sexual assault of a minor under 16, with two other counts taken into consideration.
SINGAPORE – In Singapore on Tuesday an Indian IT professional was sentenced to 20 months in jail for having sex with a minor. The arrest took place a day after he added her on Facebook.
Dere Sachin Pravin, 39, was convicted before the state courts on three counts of sexual assault of a minor under 16, with two other counts taken into consideration.
As the 15-year-old victim is a minor involved in a sex crime, she was not named. The accused, already married, came to Singapore to work in 2011.
At the time of the incident, he was working as an IT professional. Police received a complaint on December 14, 2014, by the minor’s aunt after she discovered some messages on the minor girl’s Facebook account from two men. One of them had been talking about sex.
Exactly two months before the police report was lodged, the accused had sent a friend request on Facebook to the victim, then 14-years-old.
After she accepted the request, he invited her to his house on the pretext of playing with dogs.
Sachin later asked the minor for her age as he wanted to have sex with her, but the girl lied that she was 16-years-old, though she was only 15 at that time.
Although defence argued that he was not aware the victim was under 16, prosecution said it is the accused’s onus to verify the age of the minor before engaging in further activity.
Deputy public prosecutor Delicia Tan had sought a total sentence of 20 to 24 months.
“The manner in which the accused befriended the minor and swiftly advanced to lure the minor to his house on the pretext of inviting her to play with his dogs showed a conscious, deliberate and systematic pattern of offending,” The Straits Times quoted the prosecutor Tan as telling the court.
For sex with a minor, Sachin could have been jailed up to 10 years or received a fine, or both.
