Two men get 10-year jail term for raping minor girl

The victim told the court that she had then managed to leave the place and returned home.

Two men on Tuesday were sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a minor girl in 2013, while four others got three-year jail term for sexually abusing her.

The victim, a Class 8 student at the time of the incident, during her deposition before the court last year said that her parents were unhappy with her friendship with a boy and had asked her not to meet him. Also, her father and brother had stopped talking to her, following which she was depressed. So, in the night of May 28, 2013 she left her house with the aim of committing suicide. She was soon found by her neighbour who molested her and also took her to his house to rape her.

The victim told the court that she had then managed to leave the place and returned home. Around 3 am, she again decided to take the extreme step for which she had stepped out of her house again.

She said while she was walking on the highway, two men in a white car approached her. The victim told the court that they had offered her help and so she sat in their car. Once inside the car, both the men molested her and one of them also raped her. The car was subsequently stopped at a signal at Kherwadi, where three other men also entered the car and took turns in molesting her. The victim further said the car was eventually stopped and she was asked to get off.

The victim then decided to take a train to Borivali to her maternal uncle’s house. When she took an auto-rickshaw from the station to go to her uncle’s house in Gorai, the auto driver asked her if she was fine and subsequently took her to his house. The victim told the court that the driver and his family offered her food to eat and she also slept at their house. She was eventually dropped at the station the next day and she had returned home.

Her parents, who had by then already filed a missing complaint, took her to the police station to inform the officials of her return. At the police station, the victim revealed about the sexual abuse she had faced and an FIR was filed. The victim’s neighbour was arrested immediately. Later, the police also tracked down the men in the car based on the description given by the victim and the car they were driving.

The special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act on Tuesday found the neighbour and one of the men in the car guilty of rape and sentenced the two to 10 years in jail, while finding the four other men guilty of having molested the girl.