Phulbani: A court in Odisha’s Kandhamal district has sentenced a 27-year-old man to five years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) on the charge of kidnapping a minor girl and establishing a physical relationship with her, giving false promises of marriage.
Monoranjan Das, POCSO court judge at Phulbani, on Wednesday pronounced the judgment after convicting Sibaram Pradhan alias Sida, a tribal man hailing from a village under G Udayagiri police station limits.
Special Public Prosecutor Asim Praharaj said the court has also imposed a penalty of Rs 8,000 on the convict, and in default, Pradhan would remain in custody for six more months.
The sentence was awarded to the man for committing kidnap, outraging of modesty and establishing a physical relationship with false promises of marriage to the nine-year-old girl, Praharaj said.
The court also ordered the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) of Kandhamal to pay Rs 1 lakh to the family of the victim as compensation.
The convict had kidnapped the girl from her house in a nearby village and had sex with her repeatedly.
Acting on the FIR lodged by the girl’s father of the victim in April this year, the police had arrested him.
