Keonjhar: A POCSO court has convicted a man in the case of rape of a minor girl and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 20 years in Odisha’s Keonjhar district.
As per the case, two persons including the convict, Bijay Kumar Maharana of Barbil in the district, took the girl with some allurement on his motorcycle while she was going to market in 2017. They took her to a nearby forest where all the three persons raped her.
Later, the girl managed to escape from the forest and went to her home. She informed her parents about the incident.
After the girl’s parents lodged a complaint at Barbil police station. After registering a case, the police started investigation and launched a manhunt for the three accused. They traced Maharana and arrested him. The other two accused are absconding.
After hearing the case and statements of 14 witnesses, the POCSO court announced the sentence. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict. Besides, the court directed the administration to give a compensation of Rs 7.5 lakh to the victim.
In another such case, Phulbani POCSO Court special judge Sanjit Behera convicted accused Bijay Nayak (55) and sentenced him to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the convict and directed the administration to pay a compensation of Rs 7 lakh to the minor girl.
The 7-year-old girl was raped by the convict in the area under G Udayagiri police station in the district in December, 2020.
