A 43-year-old man was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment by a court in Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh on Friday for kidnapping and raping a teenager related to him in 2011, a government lawyer said.
The convict has also been slapped with a penalty of Rs 40,000.
The convict is the husband of a cousin of the victim, who was 16 years of age at the time of the incident and was lured by him on the promise of marriage, the lawyer said.
The man was convicted under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping to compel for marriage) and 376 (rape) by Additional Sessions Judge (POCSO Court) Chandra Mohan Srivastava, Additional District Government Counsellor Dharmendra Jaint said.
The girl had gone missing on June 30, 2011 and an FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint from her family members the next day, with her father raising suspicion on her brother-in-law after someone known to them told them that he had seen the duo on a motorcycle near the Khurja junction, Jaint said.
Also, while the girl was missing, the convict had also not returned to his home since June 30, the government lawyer added.
Police arrested the convict from Punjab while the girl was also rescued, he said.
During the trial, the convict’s counsel pleaded leniency, saying the convict was young at the time of the incident and the sole breadwinner of his family. He said the convict had already spent some time in jail, which should be taken into consideration.
However, the prosecution succeeded in proving that the convict had taken the victim with him by luring her and raped her, after which the court passed the order, Jaint said.
The court sentenced the convict to three years in jail under IPC section 363, five years in jail under section 366 and seven years of rigorous imprisonment under section 376. The sentences will run concurrently.
