Karnataka: Man gets 20 years rigorous imprisonment for forcible sex on teen girl

Bengaluru, Jun 28: A special fast-track court for Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) cases here has sentenced a man to undergo 20 years rigorous imprisonment for forcibly having a physical relationship with a 17-year-old girl. He was accused of promising to marry the girl and then forcibly having sex with her.

The IIIrd additional fast-track court judge Ishrath Jehan, who pronounced the sentence recently, also found the man guilty of rape for which he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000. He was also sentenced to seven years imprisonment and Rs 5,000 fine for charges of kidnap.

All the sentences will run concurrently. The court also directed the Karnataka Legal Services Authority to provide the victim a compensation of Rs 4 lakh. A sum of Rs 10,000 from the fine imposed on the convict will also be paid to the victim. The convict, Preetam Babu aka Chitti Babu, hid his marital status from the girl from a neighboring locality and forced her into a physical relationship with the promise of marrying her.

He would often force her to go around with him. On December 23, 2017 he took her to a friend's place and committed the offence. In a similar judgment in Udupi, the fast-track special POCSO court has sentenced a 55-year-old man to 20 years imprisonment for raping a girl at a farmhouse where she was staying in 2021.

The sentence was pronounced on Monday by POCSO fast-track court judge Justice Srinivas Suvarna against the convict, Hanumantha, a resident of Haveri. Hanumantha was employed in the farmhouse where the victim was staying with her mother. The man had raped the girl in January 2021 when the girl was alone in the house.

The girl informed her mother about the incident and a complaint was filed by the girl's mother at the Kundapur police station. The court sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment of 20 years and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000, failing which he will have to spend one more year in prison.

PTI