Odisha: Man sentenced to life imprisonment for raping 4-year-old girl

Baripada/Phulbani, Sep 22 (PTI) A 35-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district for raping a four-year-old girl.

The incident happened at a village in the Badasahi police station area in January 2019 when the girl was alone at home. Offering her biscuits, the man took her with him on his bicycle to a nearby forest and raped her, Special Public Prosecutor Manaranjan Pattnayak said.

Judge Santosh Kumar Nayak of the special POCSO court sentenced the man to life imprisonment on Saturday and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him.

The verdict was based on the statements of the survivor and 11 witnesses, besides her medical report.

The survivor lost her father and was living with her mother.

In a similar case in Phulbani in Kandhamal district, a 62-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Saturday.

The survivor, 9, was alone at home when the man went there, dragged her to another room and raped her, according to Special Public Prosecutor Banamali Behera.

The incident happened in March 2021 in the Raikia police station area.

The special POCSO (Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on the convict.

The court ordered the District Legal Aid Authority to pay an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakhs to the parents of the survivor.