In one of the fastest trials ever, a POCSO court in Bihar's Araria district has sentenced a man in just one day's proceedings to life term imprisonment for raping an eight-year-old girl.
The verdict is considered the fastest delivered by any POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court in the country.
POCSO Court Special Judge Shashi Kant Rai also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict and directed him to pay a compensation of Rs 7 lakh for the survivor's rehabilitation.
Though the order was passed on October 4, the order sheet pertaining to the case was made available on November 26. The girl was raped on July 22 this year and an FIR was lodged the next day. The case was supervised by Araria women's police station in-charge Rita Kumari.
Talking to reporters, POSCO Public Prosecutor Shyamlal Yadav said, "The case in Araria was the speediest trial of a rape case in the country. It beat the record of a court in Madhya Pradesh's Datia district that wrapped up in three days a rape trial in August 2018." The court fast-tracked the proceedings by recording witnesses, arguments, and counter-arguments; convicting the accused, and issuing the judgement in just one day.
Reacting to the verdict, the Directorate of Prosecution of Bihar government's Home Department issued a statement saying, "This is perhaps the first case in which punishment has been given in a single day of trial in the country."
"Before it, in Datia (MP) district, a court had delivered a verdict after three days of trial on 8 August 2018. Bihar has now made a national record by conducting a trial in a single day by giving a life sentence to the convict till his last breath," it added.