RANCHI: A special Court in Jharkhand’s Simdega district on Friday sentenced an imam (Cleric) of a local Madarsa to life imprisonment for raping an eight-year-old girl, who used to go to him regularly to take
Urdu tuitions along with other children.
According to the Special Public Prosecutor (PP) (POCSO), the imam was convicted by the Special POCSO Court of Asha Devi Bhatt on August 22 and the sentence was pronounced on Friday.
“The court has pronounced life imprisonment for the imam Aminuddin Ansari under Sections 4, 6, 8, 12 and 376 (A) (B) of POCSO Act along with section 506 of IPC under which he has been sentenced to 5 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the imam,” said the Special PP Amit Kumar Srivastav.
A total of 16 witnesses were produced during the trial, he added.
The PP informed that the FIR was lodged on December 12 after the girl’s family members approached Kolebira Police Station to lodge an FIR in the matter. The charge sheet was filed on December 13, 2022 while the court framed the charge against the accused on February 4, 2023, he said.
“According to the FIR, the girl had gone to take Urdu tuitions as usual on Sunday. After the class was over, the 43-year old Imaam, Aminuddin Ansari, asked other children, except the girl, to go home and raped her after taking her to his room,” said the PP Amit Kumar Srivastav.
Not only this, the Imaam also threatened the girl that if she told anybody about the incident, he will ask the ‘Genie,’ which he has kept in a bottle, to kill her parent, he added, further saying that the girl, however, told her parents about the incident after returning home.
The girl’s parents, however, alleged that the local Muslim body tried to settle the matter after it came to their notice, but they were adamant and the FIR was filed.
According to the girl, similar incident had happened two months back, but due to fear she did not tell anything to her parents, it added.