Thane: Father-son duo gets 10 years' RI for girl's rape

THANE: The Thane sessions court recently sentenced the father and brother of a mentally-challenged girl to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) for raping and impregnating her .
Special court Prevention of Children from Sexual Abuse Act (POCSO) judge Kavita D Shirbhate also fined them Rs5,000 each, holding them guilty of the offences punishable under various sections under rape and threatning of the Indian Penal Code and other sections of POCSO Act 2012.
Special public prosecutor Sanjay More said that the mother of the victim who was then 15 had deserted her family due to a domestic feud, and since then the victim was living with her father aged 52 and brother aged 25.
Taking the benefit of her mental retardation, the duo had been sexually harassing her since 2017.
The victim did not seem to be aware of what was going on with her. After she was seven months pregnant, her neighbours asked her about the pregnancy and it was then that she spilled the beans. The neighbours helped her lodge a complaint with Kongaon police station in Bhiwandi division in March 2018, said Ganpat Pingle, senior police inspector of Kongaon police station. The girl's father was arrested on March 12, 2018 and her brother was arrested on March 10, 2018.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)