Amroha, Oct 22 (IANS): A special POCSO court in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha has sentenced a 24-year-old man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping an eight-year-old girl in May 2019.

Interestingly, the accused, Moolchand, was nailed when his mother reached the survivor’s house a few days after the crime, to seek forgiveness for her son’s heinous act and revealed his name before the girl’s family. She said that she was feeling guilty about what had happened.

Additional district government counsel, Ratanlal Lodhi, said on Saturday, “The girl was taken away by the accused on his bike when she was playing outside her house. He also tried to remove the evidence. The girl later narrated her ordeal at home. Since the accused was from a neighbouring village, the girl could not identify him.”

He added, “A case was registered the same day and the girl was sent to the district hospital for medical tests which confirmed rape.”

An FIR was initially lodged under relevant IPC sections and POCSO Act, against an “unidentified person” on the basis of a police complaint filed by the survivor's family.