Ghaziabad: The special pocso court additional district and sessions judge on Friday sentenced a 31-year-old man to 10 years in prison and a Rs 25,000 fine for abducting and raping a minor girl, resulting in pregnancy, 11 years ago. His 51-year-old brother-in-law was sentenced to seven years in prison with a Rs 20,000 fine for aiding in the crime and then later assaulting the minor.On Sept 27, 2015, the girl’s mother filed a complaint alleging that her sister and niece had taken her daughter somewhere along with four men. An FIR was registered against six named accused, with two names later being added in the course of the investigation. The accused were charged under sections 363, 366, 376, 354A of the IPC and sections 3/4 and 17/18 of the Pocso Act.When the accused were arrested, the complainant visited the main accused in jail to tell him the girl was pregnant and ask if the main accused would marry her. The accused allegedly refused at the time, saying he could not imagine marrying the girl due to her caste. Sections under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act were then added to the FIR.A chargesheet was filed on March 21, 2016, and the court framed charges under relevant sections against the duo on June 28 the same year. The two accused both denied the charges and sought trial. The prosecution presented seven witnesses, including the survivor, her mother and the doctor who conducted the medical examination on the minor.The accused argued that the girl was not a minor at the time and approached him willingly. He claimed they wanted to get married but her family would not agree due to caste differences. He asked for leniency, claiming that the two were in love and the girl had voluntarily married him and they were now parents of an 11-year-old son.The prosecution, however, established that the girl was only 13 years old at the time of the incident and also noted that the girl’s son lived with her and her family and not with the accused’s family.Hearing the matter on the quantum of sentence, special Pocso judge Poonam-II on Friday said that both the convicted accused were out on bail, so they must be sent to prison and their sentence terms would be adjusted against the time already spent in custody.“The amount of fine imposed on both the convicts be given to the legal guardian of the minor for her rehabilitation,” the court ruled.
