HYDERABAD: The 1st Additional Metropolitan Sessions Court for POCSO cases sentenced a 33-year-old man to 10 years of imprisonment on Thursday for raping a 15-year-old in 2016. The convict, Mohammed Wajid, lured the survivor by promising marriage and eventually left her. The survivor was pregnant at the time the complaint registered in 2016, and took responsibility to raise the child. The police, however, managed to file a chargesheet only in 2019, followed by the judgement in 2020.
In 2016, the survivor, a minor then, worked as a domestic help in Falaknuma area of Hyderabad and would often commute in Wajid’s autorickshaw. The offender lured her into marriage and raped her the minor repeatedly on this pretext. When the survivor realised she was pregnant, he evaded her and refused marriage.
The survivor and her mother approached the police and filed a complaint. However, it is learnt that despite the complaint, it took nearly three years to file a chargesheet. Officials from the police note that the delay was in procuring evidences for the case and in terms of getting legal advice to build a strong case against the accused.
Wajid has been sentenced under Section 376 (2) (n) of IPC and Section 6 of POCSO Act, along with a fine of `5,000.