Pune: A special court in the city on Saturday convicted and sentenced a private firm employee (34) from Narhe to jail for 20 years for repeatedly raping his neighbour’s 15-year-old daughter between Jan and March 18, 2022, by threatening to kill her parents. The accused has been in jail ever since his arrest in the case on March 20, 2022.Additional sessions judge DP Ragit held that the prosecution produced direct evidence in respect of repeated rape at his house by threatening to kill the girl’s parents. The judge noted that the rape survivor’s evidence stood corroborated by her parents, medical officers and investigating officers and was “consistent and corroborative to each other, free from material omissions, contradictions, infirmities and inconsistencies and was inspiring confidence.” Their evidence was sufficient to prove the offices against the accused, the judge said.According to the case put up by special prosecutor Leena Pathak, the girl, who was pursuing her Std IX studies at the time of the crime, resides with her parents and elder brother in a rented house in the Narhe area while the accused, who is married and father of a four-year-old daughter, resides in a neighbouring house. The two families knew each other well and he would frequent the girl’s house to meet her father.During Covid restrictions, her parents had bought her a mobile tab to enable her online studies. She alleged that during one of his visits to her home, the accused made a call to his number by using her mobile tab kept in the drawing room, to secure her contact number. He then started sending messages to her. The girl protested and even informed the wife of the accused about his activity, she alleged.The prosecution’s case was that the accused first raped her in Jan after forcibly taking the girl to his house and repeated the offence in Feb, on March 14 and 18 before the girl finally broke down and narrated her woes to her parents. The latter approached the Sinhagad Road police by lodging a complaint and arrested the accused.The court has imposed Rs50,000 fine on the accused and has directed that the same be paid to the rape survivor. It also directed the district legal services authority, Pune, to decide the quantum of punishment to the rape survivor under the victim compensation scheme of the state govt.
