Balasore: A special POCSO court in Balasore Tuesday awarded 20 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) to a 26-year-old man after holding him guilty of raping a minor girl.
Special Judge (POCSO) Indira Priyadarshini also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on the convict, Jyoti Ranjan Behera, a resident of the Sahadevkhunta area.
In default of the payment, Behera will have to undergo an additional 13 months of imprisonment. According to Special Public Prosecutor Pranab Kumar Panda, Behera had sexually assaulted a 15-year-old schoolgirl after blackmailing her with objectionable photographs.
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“He had threatened to make her nude photos public and even uploaded some of them on social media,” Panda said, adding that the matter came to light when the girl’s mother lodged a complaint at Sahadevkhunta police station in June 2023.
Following the complaint, police registered a case under various sections of the IPC, including 376(3), 323, 417, 379, 386, and 506, along with Section 6 of the POCSO Act and sections 66, 67C, and 68B of the IT Act and arrested Behera.
Behera was tried by the court under various charges, and the court, after examining 24 witnesses and 29 exhibits, pronounced the judgment, Panda said.
