The Additional District Court in Kottayam on Monday sentenced a 32-year-old man to 10 years rigorous imprisonment (RI) and imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh for raping a mentally challenged minor girl.
Pronouncing the judgment, Additional District Judge G. Gopakumar found Ajesh, aka Aji, 32, of Chinganteth house in Kadanad, near Pala, guilty under Indian Penal Code Section 376 (2) (j) and Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
If fine is not paid, he will have to serve an additional six months in jail. The court also ordered that the girl be paid ₹75,000 from the fine.
As per the prosecution case, the incident took place on September 2, 2013. The girl, a resident of Kottayam, was raped by two men on the day at two different places. The girl, who had left the house after a quarrel with her grandmother, was first taken away by a man named Manu, whom she had known earlier. After raping her in a vacant house in Pandavam, Manu dropped the girl off at a bus stop. Manu was later arrested and sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and fined ₹1 lakh in the earlier stage of the trial.
When the victim reached Manarcaud, Ajesh took her to an isolated location near the Government Medical College Hospital at Gandhinagar and raped her. She was then sent back to Manarcaud by an autorickshaw.
The incident came to light after the police found her on the premises of the Manarcaud church. The case was investigated by the Kottayam West police.
