Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SS)

Udupi, Sep 8: The Udupi district additional and sessions court on Tuesday, September 6, sentenced an accused to life imprisonment on charges of kidnapping, raping and murdering a minor girl three years ago near Moodusagri railway track under the Manipal police limits.

The accused Hanumantha Basappa Kambli (42) who hails from Badami taluk in Bagalkote district has been sentenced to life imprisonment and penalised under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

As the charges against the accused were proved, judge Srinivasa Suvarna sentenced Hanumantha Basappa Kambli to life imprisonment and imposed a penalty of Rs 15,000 and under the provisions of POCSO besides sentencing him to 20 years of jail and a penalty of Rs 10,000. The judge sentenced the accused to 10 years of imprisonment and imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 for kidnapping the minor girl besides awarding a seven-year jail term and a fine of Rs 2,000 for destroying the evidence. The judge ordered extension of jail term by a year if the accused failed to pay the penalty. Of the Rs 32,000 penalty, a sum of Rs 7,000 will go to the government while the remaining amount of Rs 25,000 will go to the deceased minor girl's family along with a compensation of Rs 4 lac from the government as per the court order.

Y T Raghavendra argued for the case as a public prosecutor.

Three years in 2019, the minor girl was working in a shop in Udupi when Hanumantha kidnapped the girl while she was on her way back home, raped and murdered her. The Manipal police had then registered a case and conducted a probe.