CUTTACK: A 42-year-old man was on Monday sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 14 years by a Special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) court here for raping a minor girl in 2015.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Surendra Pingua. Special public prosecutor Ramesh Chandra Mohanty led the prosecution before the trial court. Presiding judge Subash Kumar Behari further awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the victim taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of the case and her age at the time of occurrence of the crime.
Pingua has been in custody since his arrest in June 2015. The pre-conviction detention period undergone by him as an undertrial prisoner will be set off against the substantive sentence of 14 years, the judge specified in the order of sentence.
The trial in the case was taken up on the basis of an FIR lodged by the victim’s mother with Choudwar police on June 27, 2019. The girl was 14-year-old at the time of the incident.
The trial judge convicted the accused relying on statements of 16 witnesses and as many documents, including the medical report presented by the prosecution.
Pingua had called the victim when she had gone to a shop to return a cold drink bottle at around 2 pm on June 26, 2015. He had then taken her to a dilapidated house and raped her.
“Any compensation, if it has been paid to the victim as interim relief, shall be adjusted with the Rs 5 lakh,” the judge said, while asking the secretary of the district legal services authority, Cuttack, to comply with the order.