Uttarakhand man sentenced to 3-year rigourous imprisonment for kidnapping minor girl

Dehradun, Oct 10 (PTI) A POCSO court here sentenced a young man to three years of rigorous imprisonment for allegedly kidnapping a minor girl in Chamoli district’s Joshimath.

The man is said to be a professional cricketer and was 18 years old at the time of committing the alleged crime in 2022.

Special Judge of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) court Archana Sagar held the guilty under Section 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

The court directed the state government to compensate the survivor with Rs 1 lakh, said advocate Shailendra Nath, who represented the convict.

Nath informed that he would be challenging the verdict before the Uttarakhand High Court in a week.

According to Nath, the conviction judgment was passed on October 7, 2024. It came on record that the convict had administered the girl an intoxicating substance and she later found herself on a bus seated next to him.

She was reportedly abducted and taken to the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh where she was purportedly kept against her will for a couple of days.

The court ruled out rape, acquitting the man of the charge, and noted that the survivor’s medical examination remained inconclusive.