The court of additional district and sessions judge Tarn Taran Singh Bindra on Wednesday sentenced a 40-year-old man to 10 years’ imprisonment for raping and brutally assaulting a six-year-old girl in 2015.
The court has also imposed a fine of ₹50,000 on the convict, Santosh Kumar, who has been sentenced under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
As per the prosecution, the case was registered on December 28, 2015, when the girl’s father, a street vendor, approached the police, stating that his youngest daughter was brutally raped by someone at a vacant plot near their shanty in Khanna.
The father said that the six-year-old was alone at home on the day of the crime.
She had gone to a nearby vacant plot to collect wood, he had told the police, adding that it was when she did not return home that he and his wife went out to search for her.
They had found her lying unconscious in the bushes. She had injury marks on her body, the father told the police.
{{/usCountry}}They had found her lying unconscious in the bushes. She had injury marks on her body, the father told the police.
{{/usCountry}}The girl was rushed to the Khanna civil hospital from where she was referred to Rajindra hospital in Patiala.
Police investigations in the case narrowed down on Santosh Kumar, who was arrested on the basis of statements given by the witnesses.
The police, acting on the statements given by the convict, had also recovered some clothes of the girl which were hidden under bricks at the crime spot.
The convict was a labourer and hailed from Katihaar district in Bihar.