Special Judge, POCSO Court, Ranjan Kumar Sutar convicted a rape accused and sentenced him to three years' rigorous imprisonment, besides slapping Rs 7,000 penalty on him. In default of payment of fine, he will be in jail for another 13 months.
The convict, identified as Somnath Das (47) of Patrapada village under Chandipur police station limits, had sexually assaulted a 17 years old minor girl of the same village on March 22, 2015.
Das, a neighbour of the victim, used to visit the victim's house to help her father who was visually impaired. Taking advantage of the father being a blind, he committed the offence against the victim. After the mother of the girl learnt about the incident, she lodged an FIR with the police.
Following an investigation, Das was arrested and charge-sheeted. He was tried and convicted under sections 457, 323 of IPC and 8 of POCSO Act.
“The court examined eight witnesses and 12 documents before pronouncing the judgment," said Special Public Prosecutor POCSO Pranab Panda.