A special court here on Thursday convicted a 25-year-old youth on the charge of raping a minor girl and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 20 years and pay a fine of Rs 10,000. The court, also keeping in view the age of the victim, who is only seven-year-old, has awarded a sum of Rs two lakh as compensation to her family.The Additional Sessions-cum-Special Court under Pocso Act of Bandana Kar found Rama Munda alias Rama Laguri of Cuttack city guilty.
But the court felt it proper to sentence the convict under the IPC as the punishment under the amended Code being greater in degree than the Pocso Act.“Having regard to the fact that the crimes against women are increasing noticeably, inadequate sentences would definitely affect the society adversely,” the verdict said, adding that the period of detention undergone as UTP be set off against the substantive sentence.
While the incident was reported at the Markat Nagar police station here in March 2015, the accused was arrested two years after that and since then he has been cooling the heels behind the bars.