Rajasthan: Youth gets life sentence for raping minor in Jhalawar

KOTA: A POCSO court in Jhalawar on Wednesday convicted a 23-year-old youth life term in jail for raping a 16-year-old minor girl in Jawar police station area of Jhalawar district over 2 years ago. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 upon the convict.
POCSO court – 1 of the city convicted Hemraj Lodha (23), a resident of Jawar to life term in jail for raping a minor girl of his village in March, 2020, said public prosecutor, POCSO court – 1 Ramhetar Gurjar. The culprit tempted the minor rape survivor, who belonged to SC/ST category, and on March 11, 2022 took her to an isolated place, where he raped her, he said.
On the report of the survivor the same day, police lodged a case under section 376 (3) of IPC, section 3/4 of POCSO Act and sections of SC/ST Act against Hemraj Lodha and arrested him. Lodha was produced before court the next day on March 12, 2020 and since then he had been in jail under judicial custody, P P Gurjar said. The POCSO court judge, Pradeep Kumar Verma held Lodha guilty under sections of IPC and POCSO Act and convicted him 20 year term in jail while under sections of SC/ST Act, the court awarded him life term in jail, he further said.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)