Hyderabad, May 19 -- An autorickshaw driver who sexually assaulted and brutally attacked an 11-year-old boy in 2019 was sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment on Tuesday, May 19, by a special POCSO court in Hyderabad, a verdict that came nearly seven years after the crime.

On October 29, 2019, the victim boarded an autorickshaw near Jalavihar to go to Ranigunj. The driver, Abdul Rehman, diverted the route, stopped near Bathukamma Kunta and forcibly took the child into bushes near a railway track, where he sexually assaulted him.

When the boy resisted, Rehman smashed his head against a wall, causing a severe bleeding injury. Alert passers-by heard the child's cries, rushed to the spot, rescued him and handed the accused over to t...