Juvenile boy jailed for 20 years in minor’s rape case in Visakhapatnam
The court also ordered the Andhra Pradesh government to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the survivor within 30 days of receipt of the order
VISAKHAPATNAM: A Visakhapatnam special session judge on Monday sentenced a 17-year-old boy to 20 years in prison and imposed a Rs 5,000 fine for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl in Bennavolu village in Chodavaram in Andhra Pradesh's Anakapalli district.
The court also ordered the Andhra Pradesh government to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the survivor within 30 days of receipt of the order.
Since the accused is a juvenile, police produced him at the juvenile court, which after seeing the accused boy's physical appearance and mental ability transferred the case to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) court by considering him as a major and also saying that the teenager has all qualities of a major.
The Pocso court convicted him on Monday by saying that he should serve in the juvenile home till he crossed 18 years, and he should be shifted to civil jail later.
According to the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of Anakapalli district Disha police station Malla Maheswara Rao, the incident occurred on May 8 and May 9 of 2022 at Bennavolu village in Chodavaram mandal.
The victim girl’s parents are daily wage labourers and the girl is studying in the second standard in the school. The parents of the girl had gone to Anakapalli for work after preparing food and left the children at home. While the girl was playing on the road, the accused, residing opposite the victim’s house, took the girl into his house and assaulted her sexually. The same act was repeated by the accused teenager on the next day too by taking her to a cashew nut plantation near the hillock of the village after the victim girl’s parents had gone to work.
After the heinous act of rape on the schoolgirl, her mother lodged a complaint on May 11 of the same year. Based on the complaint, a case was registered under section 376 of IPC, section 5 (1) (m) read with 6 of the Pocso Act 2012.
The prosecution was conducted by the special public prosecutor K Krishana. The DSP said that superintendent of police KV Muralikrishna closely monitored and guided the investigation of the case.