India: 50-yr-old man sentenced to life for raping minor girl

Kota, Feb 21 (PTI) A 50-year-old man was awarded life sentence by a POCSO court here for raping a nine-year-old girl while he was staying at her parents' house in May 2019.

Following a trial that lasted nearly nine months, the court of Special Judge Kailash Chand Misra also imposed a penalty of Rs. 30,000 on the convict, who is a government employee in the Archaeological department, while delivering the verdict on Thursday

The special court set up to deal with cases under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, held the man guilty of raping his relative's minor daughter on May 14, 2019 at their house in Kota city when the child's mother who is a doctor was away at work, special public prosecutor, POCSO court-V Suresh Verma said.

The man was staying as a guest at their house at that time. The minor survivor narrated the incident on May 18, 2019 to her mother who filed a report the next day at the R.K. Puram police station, he said.

Statements of at least 13 witnesses were recorded during the trial, he added.