KENDRAPARA: The additional district judge-cum-special judge (POCSO) and children’s court in Kendrapara sentenced an 18-year-old girl to 20 years of imprisonment on charges of abetting the gang-rape of her classmate two years ago.
The court, in its verdict on Friday, imposed a fine of Rs 18,000 on the offender, failure to pay which would result in her sentence being increased by a year. The court also directed the Odisha State Legal Services Authority (OSLSA) to pay a compensation of Rs 7.50 lakh to the victim, who was studying in Plus II Science in a college when the incident took place.
The incident took place on October 17, 2023, when the victim was asked by her classmate to go on a trip which the former agreed after much hesitation.
Later, then 17-year-old became unconscious after she was offered a drug-laced cold drink by the convict near the college.
She was then taken by her along with two accused, Suryakanta Sahoo and Satyaranjan Sahoo, to a hotel in Cuttack in a car when she was unconscious, where she was gang-raped by both of them.
The victim returned to her village on October 18 and lodged a complaint that she was gang-raped by both accused while the convict was also present. The police launched an investigation and arrested the convict on October 20 and the two others the next day.
The convict was initially produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) at Kendrapara after her arrest as she was a juvenile at that time. The JJB ordered that the child-in-conflict with law was fully aware about the circumstances in which offences were committed and transferred the case to the children’s court at Kendrapara for her trial.
Judge Pragyan Paramita Roul sentenced the girl to 20 years of imprisonment under sections 354 A, 354 B, 376 (2) (J), 376 (2) (M), 376A, 376 D of IPC and sections 6/17 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act, 2012, after relying on the evidence of 16 witnesses including the victim and the medical report.
Meanwhile, the trial of the two main accused of this case is yet to be completed, said special public prosecutor of the court Manoj Kumar Sahu.