Vadodara: A 69-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment by the additional district and sessions court on Thursday for raping a six-year-old girl in Dabhoi. Jamaal alias Jummadada Mirza, a resident of Dabhoi, was convicted under the POCSO Act and IPC sections 354 and 376. The court has also ordered Mirza to pay Rs 7.5 lakh to the rape survivor under the Gujarat Victim Compensation Scheme 2019.
Mirza was arrested in 2018 after the survivor’s ’s mother filed a complaint against him at Dabhoi.
The accused, who stays in the neighbourhood, had lured the girl, who was six years old at that time, to his house in December 2017 when her parents were away. He raped the girl and later asked her to not tell anyone about it.
The girl later told her aunt about it who then informed the mother.
The parents initially didn’t take her talk seriously but when the girl started having inflammation in her private part, the mother realised that her daughter had been sexually assaulted.
A complaint was later registered by the mother following which the girl’s medical tests were done.
The prosecution, including public prosecutor N U Makwana and advocate Niraj Jain, proved in the court that the girl was raped by Mirza.
The defence lawyer argued that since Mirza was old and this was his first crime, the court could consider reducing his sentence.
The court ordered that the accused will have to pay Rs 1 lakh fine and if he doesn’t pay, he will have to spend two more years in the jail.
