BARIPADA : A special POCSO court on Wednesday awarded 20 years of rigourous imprisonment to a 40-year-old man for raping a minor girl five years back in Kundalbani village within Baripada Sadar police limits.
The Additional District Judge-cum-Fast Track Sessions Court,Baripada, Santosh Kumar Nayak also imposed a penalty of `10,000 on the convict, Mahadev Singh. Failure of which would result an additional jail term of six months.
On June 26, 2019, the accused had raped a mentally challenged girl while she was roaming in front of her house. Finding her alone, around 12 pm, Mahadev forcibly lifted her and committed the crime. When she started screaming, the relative of the victim rushed to the spot but Mahadev managed to escape from the scene.
Later, the relative narrated the entire ordeal before the victim’s parents. Following which, an FIR was lodged by the victim’s parents on June 28, 2019. A case was registered under 376 (2)(I) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The accused was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Based on the medical report and statements of 21 witnesses, the special POCSO court pronounced the sentence. The court also directed an ex-gratia of `50,000 to the victim by the secretary of district legal service authority.