A special Pocso court on Thursday convicted and sentenced a 41-year-old man to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping and impregnating a 13-year-old girl in 2012. The survivor gave birth to a boy. The court acquitted a co-accused (37) who was alleged to be part of the gangrape.
In 2019, the court had directed the inclusion of three police officials as accused for allegedly forcing the minor to marry a then second accused in 2013. The case against the trio, including a woman constable, has been stayed by the Bombay HC. After the alleged marriage, the second accused left for his home town and was subsequently arrested.
It was the prosecution’s case that the minor was allegedly drugged and gangraped by two accused at their shop. She later became pregnant, after which her father’s attempts to register an FIR in 2013 were allegedly thwarted by the cops, the two alleged rapists, brother of an accused and two locals, who forced her to marry one of the accused. An FIR was registered in 2014 after the father approached the HC.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
Surjitt Sahani
