PUDUCHERRY: A fast-track court in Puducherry dealing with cases booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 on Friday sentenced a 31-year-old farmer to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl.
Fast-track court (Pocso) judge M D Sumathi also sentenced him to two years of rigorous imprisonment for marrying the minor girl. Both the terms will run concurrently. The judge slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on him.
The court sentenced the minor girl’s father and aunt and the farmer’s father and mother to two years of rigorous imprisonment for solemnizing the child marriage. It imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each on them.
According to special public prosecutor S Patcheappan, the girl’s father and aunt and the minor girl’s parents arranged her marriage to the farmer knowing that the girl did not attain the age of 18. Despite knowing that the girl was minor, the farmer married her at Vikravandi on June 27, 2019.
The Thirukkanur police booked the farmer under Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Pocso Act and Section 376 (3) (whoever commits rape on a woman under 16 years of age) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 9 (punishment for male adult marrying a child) of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and arrested him. The police booked the girl’s father and aunt and the farmer’s father and mother under Section 10 (punishment for solemnizing a child marriage) of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and arrested them.