Judge Ritish Sachdeva of the special sessions court (POCSO) has awarded 55 years of rigorous imprisonment to a 25-year-old man after finding him guilty of sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl in 2019.
He was punished with two jail terms under IPC sections 376 AB and under the POCSO Act. Both sentences will run concurrently.
"The court sentenced the accused to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, along with a fine of Rs 50,000. In addition, the accused was awarded 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for the rape charge under IPC sections 376 AB," district government counsel (DGC) Rajeev Sharma said on Tuesday.
The prosecution called upon seven witnesses during the proceedings, with special public prosecutors Pradeep Balyan and Vikrant Rathi representing the victim.
According to police officials, the crime was committed on the night of March 22, 2019 at a local fair where the child had gone with her family. The girl vanished under suspicious circumstances, only to be discovered an hour later in a nearby area.
The next day, her mother filed a rape case against the accused, a resident of Bihar and working for a farmer in a Muzaffarnagar village.
Additional district counsel (ADGC) Pardeep Balyan said, "The victim had gone to a mela in her village along with her parents. Unfortunately, she got separated in the crowd. The accused, Shankar lured her to a sugarcane field and carried out the heinous crime."
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