Berhampur: A court in Ganjam district has sentenced a man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping and impregnating a 16-year-old girl three years ago, an official said Friday. The special court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in Berhampur convicted 27-year-old Ranjit Nayak of Aska area Thursday after examining the statements of 17 witnesses, including the police and a doctor, and the medical reports, special public prosecutor Narayan Panda said. Pravat Kumar Rajguru, the judge of the court, has also imposed a fine of Rs 13,000 on the convicted person. Nayak will have to serve an additional jail term of 14 months if he fails to pay the fine, the special public prosecutor said. The court has recommended the district legal service authorities (DLSA) to pay Rs 8 lakh to the survivor as compensation, he said.
Sources said the police had registered a case against the accused person under different sections of the Indian Penal Court and POCSO Act in September 2020 after an FIR was lodged by the girl’s mother. The complainant claimed that the man had a sexual relationship with the girl against her will and left her when she became pregnant. A police team from Buguda arrested the accused from Chennai.
