Ghaziabad: Man gets 20-year rigorous imprisonment over girl’s rape in 2022

The girl, with the help of CCTV, identified the man, and the police later traced him and arrested him

A Ghaziabad court on Wednesday awarded 20-year rigorous imprisonment to a 50-year-old man who stalked a 17-year-old girl to her home and later raped her inside on July 5, 2022 evening in an incident that took place under the Madhuban Bapudham police station area.

The judgment was delivered by special judge (Pocso Act) Neeraj Gautam, who stated in the October 8 order, “Based on examination of facts, it is established that the accused forcefully entered the house and raped the minor daughter of the complainant (girl’s mother) while issuing threats. (Representational image)

An FIR was lodged under sections 376 (rape), 452 (house-trespass with preparation for hurt, assault, or wrongful restraint), and 506 (criminal intimidation) was lodged on July 7, 2022, along with sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso).

The girl was engaged to a man, and on the day of the incident both visited a temple in Muradnagar. While returning, he dropped her outside a marriage house near her home, and she walked homewards.

“The accused, a daily scrap vendor in the locality, followed her and entered her house forcefully. Since he roamed around collecting scrap every day, he probably sensed she was alone. There, he raped her and also told her not to reveal the incident to anyone as he made her videos. The girl became unconscious, and the accused fled,” said special public prosecutor (Pocso) Utkarsh Vats.

The prosecution said the girl’s father was at his office and her mother was out of station, adding that the girl’s family approached the police, and a CCTV footage from a marriage hall was taken out.

“The girl, with the help of CCTV, identified the man, and the police later traced him and arrested him. He was identified as Akbar, now aged about 50-52 years and married. The court in a judgment awarded him 20 years of imprisonment under sections of the Pocso Act and also slapped a fine of one lakh rupees,” Vats added.

In court, the girl identified the accused and said that she was unaware he was following her.

“I was in the house when the man knocked at the door. I thought that it could be some neighbour… When I opened the door, he forcefully came inside and pulled me into a room. He bolted the room from inside and raped me while gagging me, and I went unconscious. When I regained consciousness, he had fled. I called up my mother… I identified the accused in CCTV footage, and the police told us that his name was Akbar,” she told the court in her chief examination.

Her fiancé stated in the court that when he called her up on phone in the evening, it was picked up briefly, and he heard someone issuing threats.

“The phone got switched off soon after. I called up her mother who told me to go home and check, as she was in Aligarh and her father was in the office… When I reached the house, the girl was crying and told me that some unidentified man had raped her,” the man told the court in his statements.

The judgment was delivered by special judge (Pocso Act) Neeraj Gautam, who stated in the October 8 order, “Based on examination of facts, it is established that the accused forcefully entered the house and raped the minor daughter of the complainant (girl’s mother) while issuing threats. Therefore, IPC sections 376, 342, and 506 and sections of the Pocso Act are proved beyond a reasonable doubt against the accused.”

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