Srinagar, Feb 17 (IANS): After a legal battle that lasted for nine long years, a court in J&K’s Sopore town on Monday convicted a paedophile with the quantum of punishment being announced on Tuesday.

Mir Wajahat, chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Spore, convicted Aijaz Ahmad Sheikh of Munaji village in Sopore sub-division after a 9-year-long legal battle.

The court found the accused paedophile guilty and passed the conviction order on Monday. The court also observed that the quantum of punishment will be announced on Tuesday.

The counsel of the victim, advocate Ayshia Zehgeer pursued the case which was filed under section 377 of the erstwhile Ranbir Penal Code (RPC).

The accused had played an imposter as a teacher and a religious preacher to sexually exploit minors before he was arrested and charged by the police.

Villagers in Mundji received the paedophile’s conviction verdict with joy and celebrations. The paedophile had become notorious in the village. People said that the conviction of the paedophile will come as a great relief to all parents of children who remain worried about the safety of their children from beasts like paedophiles in society.

There have been a number of cases in which sex maniacs had faked as religious preachers or mystics to lure the gullible people. In one such case, an insane person had recently developed a replica of the holiest Muslim place, the Kaaba. The insane person constructed a replica of the holy place and asked gullible locals to visit the replica if they could not afford to go to Mecca for Hajj or Umrah.

Police finally took him to the local hospital for psychiatric diseases while those people including carpenters and other workers who had crafted the replica have been arrested.

In another infamous incident, an imposter pretending as a religious preacher would take young girls to a room in his home, which the imposter claimed was the gateway to heaven. He was also arrested by police and charged under relevant sections of law.