Mangalore: Youth gets 8 years in jail for raping college girl in 2010
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Mangalore, Oct 6: The fourth additional district and sessions court on Saturday October 5 sentenced a youth convicted in the 2010 Muchar rape case to 8 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000.
On Tuesday October 1, Prashanth alias Rupesh Devadiga (25) was convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl and threatening to kill her on December 10, 2010.
If he fails to pay the penalty to the victim, Prashanth will be subjected to two more years of imprisonment.
Judge B K Naik delivered the verdict.
The victim, a 17-year-old girl studying in PU at the time of the incident, used to supply milk cans to dairies early morning everyday and then catch a bus to Kateel where she attended college. On December 10, 2010, when she was going home collecting the milk cans from the dairies, Prashanth stopped her at Takarakodi and raped her in a wooded area. Prashanth is a resident of Muchar, and was engaged in coolie work at the time.
Bajpe police had registered a case in this regard. The then circle inspector of Panambur Valentine D'Souza had investigated and submitted the chargesheet in the court.
Lawer Manjunath V Bhat who was the public prosecutor appealed to the judge to impose maximum punishment as the girl was a minor. The defence counsel argued that the accused was young and had already served one year of imprisonment as undertrial. Even after he was released on bail, he conducted himself well and attended all the hearings in the case without fail, the defence lawer said.
Taking all arguments, witnesses and evidences into consideration, the court sentenced Prashanth to 8 years of rigorours imprisonment. Though the maximum punishment in the case was to be 7 years, the judge sentenced him to 8 years in jail considering the gravity of the crime, said public prosecutor Manjunath V Bhat.