Mumbai: A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual offences (POCSO) Act on Saturday sentenced a 23-year-old to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 56,000 on him for gangraping along with a minor, a teenager who had rejected advances of the 16-year-old.
The court has directed that of the fine amount, Rs 45,000 be given as compensation to the victim, apart from recommending the case for compensation under the Victim Compensation Scheme. The trial against the minor was separated and placed before the Juvenile Justice Board.
Special Public Prosecutor Geeta Sharma said that the forensic report of the semen found on the 15-year-old victim’s clothes matched with the DNA of the convicted youth.
The victim, who was not acquainted with the youth before the incident, identified him in court. The 16-year-old had made advances towards the girl, who lived in his locality, through another friend, whom she was acquainted with. That friend had asked the girl to meet the minor and had passed his phone number to her, asking her to call him, but she had not shown interest.
Deposing before the court, the victim, a Chembur resident, had told the court that she was returning from a grocery shop with her younger sister between 9.30 pm and 10 pm, when the youth who asked her to contact the minor approached them from behind in the lane and the minor approached them from front. They separated the sisters. The minor told the youth to take the victim’s younger sister to her home and to tell the family that the victim has been to the bathroom. Then, he dragged her to a room. She raised an alarm, but nobody heard. At the room, the minor and the present convict raped her. The minor then warned her not to disclose the matter to anyone, or they would kill her. The girl disclosed the incident to her father who had come searching for her after some time of waiting. The police were called and the boys, who had bolted themselves up in the room, were taken into custody.
