BENGALURU: Reversing the acquittal of a Mysuru-based painter, the Karnataka high court has held him guilty of abducting and raping a minor girl in 2013.
A division bench comprising Justices HB Prabhakara Sastry and Umesh M Adiga recently sentenced the painter to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with a Rs 50,000 fine for aggravated sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.He was also handed down five years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 5,000 for kidnapping the girl to compel her into marrying him. The jail terms will run concurrently.
The painter has been granted 45 days to surrender before the jurisdictional court. Of the fine, Rs 50,000 is payable to the girl, the bench said but upheld the acquittal of six other accused.
The case of the prosecution was that on October 13, 2013, the painter took the girl, aged 14 years and four months at the time, on his motorcycle, after threatening her that he would consume poison if she did not accompany him.
He took her to various villages in Hunsur and Periyapatna taluks of Mysuru district and repeatedly raped her for 10 days, the court heard. As the girl’s parents filed a complaint, the other accused in the case tried to build a story that she had left home herself because she was not ready to marry a boy her family had chosen for her.
VV Puram police rescued her and booked the suspects but a special Pocso court acquitted them, holding that the prosecution’s story could not be relied upon.
Challenging the verdict in the high court, police argued that the age of the girl had been proved and the trial court failed to consider the evidence. The accused contended the girl had voluntarily gone with him and had consensual sex with him, the additional state public prosecutor argued, while pointing out that given her age, the question of consent doesn’t arise.
The division bench noted that the trial court tried to determine the girl’s age by “guesswork”.
A division bench comprising Justices HB Prabhakara Sastry and Umesh M Adiga recently sentenced the painter to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with a Rs 50,000 fine for aggravated sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.He was also handed down five years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 5,000 for kidnapping the girl to compel her into marrying him. The jail terms will run concurrently.
The painter has been granted 45 days to surrender before the jurisdictional court. Of the fine, Rs 50,000 is payable to the girl, the bench said but upheld the acquittal of six other accused.
The case of the prosecution was that on October 13, 2013, the painter took the girl, aged 14 years and four months at the time, on his motorcycle, after threatening her that he would consume poison if she did not accompany him.
He took her to various villages in Hunsur and Periyapatna taluks of Mysuru district and repeatedly raped her for 10 days, the court heard. As the girl’s parents filed a complaint, the other accused in the case tried to build a story that she had left home herself because she was not ready to marry a boy her family had chosen for her.
VV Puram police rescued her and booked the suspects but a special Pocso court acquitted them, holding that the prosecution’s story could not be relied upon.
Challenging the verdict in the high court, police argued that the age of the girl had been proved and the trial court failed to consider the evidence. The accused contended the girl had voluntarily gone with him and had consensual sex with him, the additional state public prosecutor argued, while pointing out that given her age, the question of consent doesn’t arise.
The division bench noted that the trial court tried to determine the girl’s age by “guesswork”.