Mangaluru: POCSO case - Convict sentenced to 20 years in prison

The Additional District and Sessions Court, FTSC-2 POCSO Special Court has sentenced a 27-year-old to 20 years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 in a POCSO case.

The convict has been identified as K. Sudhir (27) of Koppadagandi house in Kadirudyavar village, Belthangady.

According to the prosecution, the victim, who was 13 years old, used to visit the accused Sudhir’s house on holidays as well as other days to watch TV. On one such visit during the last week of December 2021, he took the girl to his grandmother’s abandoned house a short distance away from his home in guise of taking her to a shop. He sexually assaulted the girl there and further threatened her not to reveal about the incident to anyone.

In the days that followed, the sexual assaults continued. The matter was revealed in August 2022 when the girl became pregnant.

To hide the crime, Sudhir and others planned to get her an abortion in a hospital somewhere in Chikkamagaluru. To convince the hospital they were married, they made her wear an anklet and a silver black stone chain, decorated her like a bride, and took a photo with him. They told her mother that they were taking her to attend a wedding and a birthday function. the girl was taken to a hospital in Chikkamagaluru and the fetus was aborted in December 2022.

When the matter came to light, a case was registered at the Belthangady police station under the POCSO Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code. The then Belthangady police circle inspectors Shivakumar B. and Satyanarayana K. completed the investigation and submitted the charge sheet against the accused to the court.

The case was heard in the Additional District and Sessions Court, FTSC-2 POCSO Special Court, where a total of 24 witnesses and 62 documents were examined for the prosecution. After perusing the evidence, documents and supporting evidence of the case, as well as the arguments and defense, judge Maanu KS held that the accused guilty and pronounced the sentence on November 21.

The convict has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 40,000 under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of the POCSO Act for the crime of rape. The accused has been sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code for the crime of destruction of evidence. The court also ordered that the fine of Rs 50,000 be paid to the aggrieved girl.

Special Public Prosecutor K Badrinath Nayari had argued for the prosecution.

Compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the victim

The District Legal Services Authority has been directed in the judgment to provide additional compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the aggrieved girl under Section 357(A) of the Criminal Procedure Code and under the Victims’ Compensation Scheme.