Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Mar 6: A Bengaluru Fast Track Special Court (FTSC) on Thursday sentenced an 18-year-old man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting and impregnating a minor girl.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on the convict. Judge N Narasamma directed the District Legal Services Authority to provide Rs 5 lakh compensation to the victim.

The case was registered at Cottonpet police station on May 10, 2024. According to the police, the accused had lured the minor to his house when no family members were present and sexually assaulted her multiple times.

The crime was revealed when the victim’s father discovered she was two months pregnant and filed a complaint.

The police arrested the accused on May 13, 2024, and charged him under Section 376(3) of the IPC and Sections 3, 4(2), 7, and 8 of the POCSO Act.

Following the investigation, the Fifth FTSC Court delivered the verdict. In another case, on September 26, 2024, the same court sentenced a man to death for the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Belagavi district.

The accused had lured the child with chocolates on September 21, 2017, before committing the crime in a sugarcane field. The court noted that the accused was aware of the victim’s age but proceeded with the crime, later suffocating her with mud and partially burying her body before fleeing.

These judgments reinforce the strict enforcement of the POCSO Act and underline the judiciary’s zero-tolerance policy towards crimes against children.