Man gets 20 years RI for raping minor in Sector 40

A city court sentenced a man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a 15-year-old girl after taking her hostage in Sector 40 about five years back, police said.

The court of additional district judge Ashwani Kumar, a designated fast-track court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, pronounced the 28-year-old man guilty on Tuesday while refusing to grant any leniency. The court also observed that stringent punishment should be announced in such cases so that it sends a stern message to society.

The court also imposed a fine of ₹40,000 on the convict while pronouncing the quantum of sentence under section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act on Friday.

In case of non-payment of the fine, the convict will have to undergo simple imprisonment for six additional months.

According to the court order, the period of detention served by the convict will be set off from the total sentence of imprisonment awarded to him in the case.

Sunil Kumar Parmar, special public prosecutor, said that the convict and the survivor were neighbours in a locality in Sector 40. “Taking advantage of the situation, the convict had lured the victim to his home and raped her when her parents were at work. He had also threatened her with dire consequences if she told anyone about the incident,” he said.

“However, she disclosed the incident to her mother after she returned home following which the parents approached the police and got an FIR registered under the POCSO Act at the Sector 40 police station on June 11, 2020,” he said.

Parmar said that though the convict pleaded not guilty and had also submitted that he was falsely implicated in the case, the medical examination indicated otherwise and its report established that the minor had been sexually assaulted.

“The survivor, her mother and other witnesses in the case had also deposed supporting the allegations in the FIR following which the court observed the prosecution case was strong enough to pronounce the man guilty without any reasonable doubt,” he said.

Parmar said that the special court has also directed the district legal service authority to award compensation to the survivor as per the state government’s compensation scheme.