BOKARO: SIX GET 30-YR RIGOUROUS IMPRISONMENT FOR MINOR’S GANG RAPE

RANCHI: A local court in Bokaro district has sentenced six people to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor girl in a remote village on March 1, 2019.

The girl was 17 years old and a student of Class X of government school at the time of incident.

After a 14-day trial that commenced on July 14 this year, the additional district judge and special judge of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), Janardan Singh, announced the sentences on Thursday.

There were a total of 12 accused in the case. While one of them is still absconding and yet to be produced before the court by the police, trial against five others is being held by juvenile board as they were minors.

Special public prosecutor S K Jha said, “The court held the six accused guilty under sections 376 D (gang rape) and 366 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code and under section 6 (g) of POCSO Act (aggravated form of penetrative sexual assault). The court awarded 30 years of RI and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 under the POCSO Act on each of the six convicts — Shiva Pashi, Chottu Challia, Sohit Bilhor, Dilip alias Mansa Kumar, Rajvallabh Pasi and Suresh Angeria. The court also imposed an additional fine of Rs 10,000 on all six under section 366 of the IPC. The Rs. 3.6 lakh amount would be paid to the girl.”

As per the prosecution, the incident occurred around 11 pm on March 1, 2019, when the accused entered the house of the girl after overpowering her grandfather who was out to relieve himself. Jha said the men took away the girl forcibly at gunpoint in front of family members.

“They took her to a densely forested area about a kilometre away from her house and took turns to rape her till she lost consciousness. She managed to reach home next morning. Though the family is extremely poor, the girl had shown exemplary courage and filed a police complaint,” said Jha.

She underwent a medical examination, got her statement recorded before the court and also identified the accused in test identification parade (TIP) conducted by the police in the presence of a magistrate, he said.