Balasore: A special POCSO court Tuesday handed down 20-year imprisonment to a youth after convicting him of raping a minor girl under Nilagiri block in Balasore district. The convict was identified as Santosh Singh. POCSO court Judge Ranjan Kumar Sutar also slapped a penalty of Rs 14,000 on the convict, apart from the punishment. The judge also directed the authorities of district legal services authority (DLSA) to pay Rs 4 lakh in financial assistance to the survivor. This was stated here by special public prosecutor Pranav Kumar Panda of the state government.
According to the case diary, the incident occurred in 2019 when Santosh and his friend called the 14-year-old survivor to a shop and forced her to drink liquor. Santosh’s friend left the place while the former took the survivor to the farmland and raped her. He even threatened to kill her if she revealed the matter before others. The girl narrated her ordeal before her mother after she experienced stomach pain January 29, 2020. The girl’s mother informed the village elders following which a meeting was convened to resolve the issue but Santosh did not turn up. Left with no option, the girl accompanied by her mother lodged a complaint at Nilagiri police station February 6, 2020.
