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Two sentenced to 20-year rigorous imprisonment for raping minor in Odisha
The two, who were juveniles at the time of the sexual assault but were tried as adults, will also serve two-year concurrent imprisonment and be liable to ₹2,000 penalties each for filming the assault and circulating its video
A special court in Odisha’s Nayagarh has sentenced two men to 20-year rigorous imprisonment after convicting them of raping a 14-year-old girl in 2017. The two, who were juveniles at the time of the sexual assault but were tried as adults, will also serve two-year concurrent imprisonment and be liable to ₹2,000 penalties each for filming the assault and circulating its video.
Itishree Mohapatra, special judge, Nayagarh’s Children’s Court, also slapped ₹50,000 fine on each of them and the money will be paid to the girl as compensation. If the two fail to pay the penalty, they would have to undergo another two years of imprisonment.
Additional public prosecutor Amiya Patnaik said the girl was at a bank in Nayagarh to inquire about monetary assistance under Chief Minister Bicycle Scheme in April 2017 when the convicts persuaded her to go to a nearby temple. “Though the girl was reluctant, she agreed to accompany them,” Patnaik said. Patnaik added the girl was taken to an isolated place on a hill where she was raped.
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The accused were charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. In 2018, a third accomplice of the two was sent to a correctional home for three years. The two convicts were tried as adults under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
As per the Act, anyone above 16, who commits any heinous offence with a minimum punishment of seven years, can be tried as an adult.
A psychologist also conducted tests on the two accused and found them to be psychologically adults and capable of committing crimes.
