A Ghaziabad court on Thursday sentenced a 26-year-old man to 10 years in prison for abducting and raping a 16-year-old girl in November 2019 after befriending her on social media.
The incident took place on November 14, 2019, when the accused, Sahibabad resident Salman Khan, alias Sam, allegedly lured the girl into his Swift car and took her on a train to Rampur, where he forcibly made her stay at his aunt’s house for three to four days before raping her several times, and then returning to Ghaziabad, according to police.
An FIR in this connection was registered on November 19, 2019, under sections 376 (rape), 363 (kidnapping), and 366 (abducting or kidnapping a woman for compelling her to marry) of the Indian Penal Code, and also under sections 3/4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The sections of Pocso Act deal with penetrative sexual assault.
The police filed a charge sheet on January 18, 2020, and the complaint was filed by her father.
In the court order, the girl in her statements before a magistrate (under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code), narrated the incident and said that she had befriended the man on a social media platform.
“The girl in her statements before a magistrate and also before the court during the trial stood by her testimony. Based on evidence and testimony, the court convicted the accused and pronounced 10 years of imprisonment. The suspect was her online friend for the 6-7 months before the incident and forcibly took her to Rampur, where he assaulted her,” said Utkarsh Vats, special public prosecutor (Pocso).
The girl in her statements before the court saud, “He was my friend on a social media platform for 6-7 months. I got angry with my mother over some issue on November 14, 2019. The accused took me to Rampur even though I refused to go. There, he made me stay at his aunt’s house for a few days and forcibly assaulted me two to three times even though I resisted.”
In her chief examination, she said that the accused had picked her up from near her house and, while on the way to Rampur, also took her phone and switched it off. In Rampur, she met his uncle and aunt, and the accused told her not to talk to anybody.
The court in its judgment said, “It appears that accused Salman lured and took the daughter of the complainant in order to have sex. He lured and kidnapped her from the custody of her legal guardian and assaulted her. So, the offences under sections 376, 363, and 366 of the Indian Penal Code and the section of Pocso are proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The court said that the accused is on bail and “should be taken in judicial custody, and his bail bonds stand cancelled.”