LATUR: A court in Maharashtra's Latur district has sentenced a 32-year-old man to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor relative.
Additional and Sessions Judge B C Kamble, in the order passed on Tuesday, also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on the accused, hailing from Nilanga in the district.
According to the prosecution, the accused and his wife came to stay at the victim's place in Latur for work in 2019.
At that time, the victim was 14 years' old and studying in Class 9, according to police.
The accused would drop the victim to her school and pick her up on his scooty and allegedly touch her inappropriately.
When the girl resisted his move, he threatened her and said he would speak to her parents as they trust him, and would stop her from going to school.
Thereafter, the accused allegedly raped her on several occasions when no one else was around at her home and also threatened to kill her parents.
Later, the accused's wife got transferred to Nilanga and the accused also settled there. But, he would come to the victim's place and allegedly rape her when no one else was around, as per a police release.
The victim later informed about the offence to her parents who then approached the police and a case was registered against the accused under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The police investigated the case, collected evidence against the accused and submitted a chargesheet in the court.
The statements of 11 witnesses were recorded, according to the police.
(With PTI inputs)
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
