Mumbai: 39-year-old accused sentenced to seven years for raping 14-year-old girl

The Dindoshi Sessions Court has sentenced a 39yearold accused to seven years imprisonment for raping a fourteenyearold girl In addition to the imprisonment the court has imposed a fine of Rs 25000 If the accused fails to pay the fine the court has ordered an additional punishment of 3 monthsThe accused has already spent nearly seven years in jail and on June 30th the court sentenced him to seven years of imprisonmentThe case was registered at the Kurar police station on August 18 2016 under various sections of the IPC and the POSCO ActThe victim a 14yearold girl studying in standard IX at a private school was residing at her aunt and uncles house while her parents lived in her native villageThe convicted accused a 32yearold man lived in the neighboring house in the same locality according to an officerDuring the investigation it was revealed that the accused had a 2yearold daughter and the victim girl used to visit his house to play with his daughter and sometimes to buy daily necessities for the accused from a shopIn her statement to the police the victim mentioned that the accused attempted to touch her chest and threatened her when she objectedDespite experiencing inappropriate touching the victim was coerced into visiting the accuseds house under the pretense of playing with his daughter claiming her aunt had allowed itDuring these visits the accused molested her multiple times and forcibly raped her on several occasionsFearful for her life the victim started refusing whenever the accused asked her to come to his home stated the officerThe victim did not disclose anything to her aunt but another woman from the locality sensed something amiss and upon inquiry the girl revealed the truth according to another officerBased on the complaint filed by the victim and her aunt the case was registered and the accused was arrested on the same day in 2016 subsequently being sent to jailHis bail was rejected and finally Judge SN Salve of Dindoshi Session Court Number 15 pronounced the accused guilty sentencing him to seven years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 25000 In case of nonpayment an additional 3month sentence was ordered as confirmed by Senior Inspector Satesh Gadve of Kurar PoliceThe diligent efforts of all the officers including Police Inspector Chalke and Chandanshive WAPI Gayatri Bedse API Nagre and Police Constables Rabade Jadhav Shaikh and Surwade contributed to the successful outcome added Inspector GadveExpert opinionIn custody cases trials are conducted even when the accused is in jail When bail applications are repeatedly rejected the trials proceed with shorter dates Courts do not provide longer dates considering that the accused is already in custody explained an expertAfter the trial if the accused is convicted the number of days spent in jail custody is deducted from the overall conviction period For example if the accused has already spent six years in jail custody and the conviction is for seven years they would need to spend only one year in jail This is how the court imposes the conviction the expert clarified