Man awarded 20-yr jail for raping minor

Ludhiana: A local court on Friday sentenced a man to 20-year rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a minor girl. The court of additional sessions judge (fast-track special court) Amar Jeet Singh also imposed a fine of Rs 1.1 lakh on the convict.
On September 22, 2020, division number 2 police had booked the man under Sections 363 (Kidnapping), 366 A (procuration of minor girl), 376 (rape) of IPC and relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The girl’s father in his complaint had said on September 21, 2020, his daughter had gone to a market to purchase some article but she did not return. The complainant and his friend started searching for the girl, but they did not find her. The complainant suspected that the accused, who had a mobile shop near their residence, had taken away his daughter on the pretext of marriage.
In her statements, the prosecutrix had deposed that accused started calling on her mother’s mobile phone in order to talk to her and started harassing her. On September 21, 2020, she had gone to the market, where the accused met her and asked her to meet him near the railway line. “When I met him, the accused told me that he wants to marry her and threatened if she would not agree to his proposal, he would kill her family,” the girl claimed.
Thereafter, he forcibly took her to Ambala City on the pretext of solemnizing marriage with her. There he kept her in a hotel room, where he forcibly made physical relations with her without her consent. He kept threatening her that in case she would not allow him to do wrongful act, he would kill her family, the girl claimed. On October 4, 2020, the accused was taking her to Pathankot via Ludhiana, when the police nabbed the accused.