A special POCSO court in Vadodara on Monday sentenced a 21-year-old man to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment for raping a girl, rejecting the defence’s argument that their consensual relationship exempted him from punishment as she was below 18 years of age.
The court convicted Kaneshwarshinh alias Karan Jayprakash Darbar under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Section 64(1), and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, including Section 6. The court imposed a total fine of ₹58,000, of which ₹45,000 was ordered to be paid to the victim as compensation.
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The case was registered at Panigate police station in March 2025. The court noted the victim was 17 years and four months old and therefore a child under Pocso. It observed that the two were in a “love affair” and had a “consensual relationship”, but held that the accused remained liable for punishment as she was below 18. The court imposed the minimum sentence prescribed under Section 6 of Pocso.