Bareilly (UP), Aug 13 A special POCSO court here on Thursday sentenced a 35-year-old man to 10 years of imprisonment for raping a minor girl in a nearly nine-year-old case.
Special Judge (POCSO Act) Namrata Aggarwal convicted the man under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on him, failing which he will have to undergo an additional six months in jail.
Three other co-accused in the case were acquitted of charges under IPC Sections 452 (house-trespass), 323/34 (voluntarily causing hurt with common intention) and 504/34 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).
According to government advocate Rajiv Tiwari, the incident occurred on May 4, 2017 in a village under the Nawabganj police station area.
The victim, a roughly 14-year-old girl, was lured away from her home by a woman, one of the co-accused persons, under a pretext and later left in a field with the man.
The man then raped the girl before abandoning her in the field, the prosecution said.
After learning about the ordeal the following day, the victim's family lodged a complaint, leading to an FIR being registered on May 9, 2017.
Finding the victim's testimony credible, the court observed that the absence of injuries or an intact hymen in the medical examination alone cannot render her statement unreliable.
The court noted that the victim was intoxicated and was recovered in an unconscious condition from the field.
Delivering the judgment, the court held that the prosecution successfully proved the charges of rape and Section 4 of the POCSO Act against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court ordered the man to be sent to the Bareilly District Jail to serve his sentence, adding that half of the fine amount be given to the victim and complainant according to rules.
The period already spent by the convict in jail during the investigation and trial will be adjusted against his sentence.
Highlighting the gravity of the crime, the court observed that offences of such nature are severe and cause long-term mental agony to minor victims.
