Separate cases in Vadodara and Panchmahal: POCSO courts convict 2 to 20 yrs in jail for raping minors

The court also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the accused and has ordered the District Legal Services Authority to compensate the victim as per the provisions.

In the Panchmahal case, the court ordered a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the 15-year-old survivor in which the accused, who is 24 years old, was convicted for 20 years. The FIR in the case was filed on January 15, 2022, when the accused allegedly kidnapped the survivor from the backyard of her village home while she was washing her hands and dragged her to a nearby field and raped her. The court dismissed the defence plea that the accused had been falsely booked as the survivor’s father had animosity with the father of the accused over the demarcation of their adjoining farmlands.

Also dismissing the defence argument that the standing crops of pigeon peas in the farm where the said crime occurred had not been damaged, the court held, “The question of discharging the reverse burden by the accused would arise only when the initial burden cast on the prosecution is discharged to the satisfaction of the court…”

In both cases, courts upheld the medical examination reports as well as depositions of the witnesses and also “considered the age” of the accused before sentencing the convicts to 20 years in prison under various sections of the Indian Penal Code as well as the POCSO Act.