BHUBANESWAR: Additional District Judge-cum-Special Judge of Children's Court Itishree Mohapatra awarded 20 years rigorous imprisonment (RI) to two youths for allegedly gangraping a 15-year-old girl in Nayagarh district four years ago.
The court has also directed to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 on convicts Satyavan Muduli (21) and his associate Babru Muduli (21) and on default of which to undergo RI for two more years.
Additional Public Prosecutor Amiya Kumar Pattnaik said the convicts were 17-year-old when they had committed the crime. The Children's Court has ordered to shift them from the observation home to Nayagarh sub-jail as they are adults now, he said.
According to the prosecution, the girl, a native of Pancharida village under Sarankul police limits was gang-raped by the two youths, who also video-graphed the heinous crime on mobile phone and made the video viral after the incident on February 20, 2017.
Along with a male friend, the girl, a student of Class-X then, had visited the local SBI branch to inquire whether she had received the money in her account for the bicycle under a government's scheme.
When she and her friend were returning to their village, the two known locals came on a motorcycle and requested to accompany them to the Jhadeswari temple on the foothills of a mountain.
The victim visited the temple and after offering prayers when she was about to leave, the convicts raped her one after another while the male friend held her so that she did not escape. One accused was recording the crime on his mobile phone when the other was assaulting her sexually.
Sarankul police had registered a case on April 3, 2017, following a complaint lodged by the victim’s father, a labourer, and had apprehended the three boys, including the victim's friend.
The Juvenile Justice Board had directed a medical team including one psychologist to examine them. The psychologist informed the board that the duo was aware that they had committed a heinous crime.
As the amended Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, allowed children in the age bracket of 16-18 years to be treated as adults in cases of heinous crimes, the case was transferred to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Court in Nayagarh and the trial against the two youths had commenced.
The case was later transferred to the Children's Court after it started functioning in the Nayagarh district. The two were tried under Sections 376D (gangrape) and 292 (imports, exports, or conveys any obscene object) of the IPC.
Earlier, the victim's friend, a 15-year-old then, was awarded three years imprisonment by the Juvenile Justice Board in Nayagarh on October 5, 2018, in this connection.