Man gets life sentence for raping female relative

A court in Maharashtra's Palghar district on Thursday sentenced a 45-year-old man to life imprisonment for repeatedly raping a minor girl, who was his relative.

District judge Rajendra Majgaonkar convicted Arvind Patil under IPC section 376 (rape) and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on him.

The court also held Patil's wife Manisha (35) and her mother Bhanubai Kini (57) guilty under the POCSO Act for abetting the crime, and awarded them ten years of rigorous imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs 1,000 each.

According to the prosecution, after the girl's mother died, her father married another woman and the minor was sent to her grandmother's house for schooling.

Between June 2013 and April 2014, Patil repeatedly raped the girl and threatened to kill her and her parents if she told anyone about it, prosecutor Deepak Tare said.

When the victim became pregnant, she told Manisha and Bhanubai about it, but instead of helping her, the women forced her to continue having physical relations with Patil, Tare told the court.

Eventually it was the girl's step-mother who came to know about the victim's trauma and approached the police. A total of 15 witnesses were examined during the trial.