Phulbani: A POCSO court in Kandhamal district Thursday sentenced a man to 20 years rigorous imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl in 2021.
POCSO court judge Monoranjan Das has also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict Hemanta Patra (21). If the penalty is not realised, he will remain in custody for another six months, said Romesh Chandra Mohanty, special public prosecutor of the court.
According to the prosecution, the accused, who was an unemployed youth in 2021, raped the girl when she went to the outskirts of her village in the evening to attend to nature’s call.
The convict threatened the girl and also committed rape on the girl for several times under Belghar police station area, Mohanty said.
Later, the victim’s family member lodged an FIR with Belghar police. Patra was then arrested and forwarded to judicial custody, he added.