Jaipur: A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) court of Jaipur has sentenced a man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl in just 9 days. The accused was sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 2 lakh. The court also praised Jaipur police for arresting the accused within 13 hours of the incident and submitting the charge sheet in 6 hours of the arrest.
‘The harsh punishment is necessary to stop such heinous crimes and the reckless efforts of people of mental perversity like the accused in society’ Said judge Vikas Khandelwal in his verdict.
According to police, the victim is a 10-year-old girl of Kotkhavada village in the Jaipur district. The accused Kamlesh had abducted and raped her at around 6.30 in the evening of September 26. He also tried to strangulate her. The family of the victim lodged the report at 10.30 in the night.
Police arrested the accused at around noon of September 27 and submitted the charge sheet by 6pm and completed its probe in just 24 hours of the incident. Around 150 policemen were deputed to complete the investigation. The DNA samples were sent to the forensic sciences lab on the evening of September 27 and the FSL team submitted its report on October 1.
The public prosecutor Rachna Mann said, "Looking at the efforts of the police, we decided to put some extra efforts to expedite the hearing and we moved an application of continuous hearing of the case and the court accepted it."
Rachna said that the court heard the case for 28 hours in 5 days except for Saturday and Sunday. The prosecution presented 18 witnesses in the court and the victim was heard through the video conference as she was in the hospital. ‘We are happy that extra efforts worked and the victim got the justice in time,’ added Rachna Mann.
CM Ashok Gehlot also applauded this fast track justice and tweeted "This is an example of our commitment to provide justice to the victim and the result of decisions taken by our government for this is visible in such verdicts."
It is to note that Rajasthan has recorded maximum number of rape cases for the second year in a row according to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report of 2020 released recently. The state had registered 5310 cases of rape in the year 2020 while the victims were 5337. Victims of rape below 18 years are also highest in the county.
Even the Centre has approved the continuation of 1023 Fast Track Special Court (FTSCs) including 389 exclusive POCSO Courts as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) with an outlay of Rs. 1572.86 crore (Rs.971.70 crore as Central Share and Rs.601.16 crore as State share). Currently covering 28 States, it is proposed to be expanded to cover all 31 states which are eligible to join the Scheme.
