Ghaziabad: A court in Ghaziabad on Tuesday awarded 20-year rigorous imprisonment to a 28-year-old man for kidnapping and raping a five-year-old minor girl whom he picked up while she was sleeping outside her house with her grandmother on the night of July 24, 2018.
An FIR in this connection was registered at the Vijay Nagar police station under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape) and also under the provisions of the Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act against Gulab (single name). Locals had caught him at the crime scene, a kilometre from their locality.
Police filed a chargesheet in the case on September 19, 2018.
The girl’s father told the court that on the day of the incident, he got up at night and found the girl was not in bed.
“I searched a lot for her, but she could not be found. Then I checked through CCTV installed at a neighbour’s house, and he told me that it was Gulab who took away the girl. We, several people, started to search and also went to the (vacant) military ground, where we found the girl in bushes. Locals also nabbed Gulab near the incident spot. The girl was taken for medical examination at MMG Hospital in Ghaziabad and later for treatment to GTB Hospital, Delhi,” the girl’s father said in his chief examination.
The girl, then a student of nursery class, also gave her statements before the court and also identified the accused, Gulab. The court said that the girl in her statements to the police (CrPC 161) and also before a magistrate (CrPC 164) narrated the same sequence that happened with her during the incident.
The medical examination of the girl also proved that she suffered several injuries to her body during the assault.
“In the present case, accused Gulab picked up the girl, who was sleeping with her grandmother, and took her to the jungle, where he undressed her and raped her. She was found bloodstained in bushes on the military ground and also suffered severe internal and external injuries. The prosecution is able to prove its case against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt under IPC sections 363 and 376 and also under sections of the Pocso Act,” special judge (Pocso Act) Dipika Tiwari said in the order issued on December 23.
The court awarded 20-year rigorous imprisonment to Gulab under Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Pocso Act, besides levying a penalty of ₹1 lakh against him.