Thane, Nov 6: A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has sentenced a man to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment for raping a five-year-old girl in 2018.

Special Judge V V Virkar in her order on Saturday convicted the 36-year-old accused under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and imposed a collective fine of Rs 25,000 on him. Tripura Horror: 15-Year-Old Boy Kills Mother, Sister, Two More Relatives in Dhalai; Investigation Underway.

Special Public Prosecutor Rekha Hiwrale said the judge took a serious note of the crime committed by the accused on the child and held that the prosecution proved all the charges against him beyond reasonable doubt.

The prosecution examined eight witnesses to nail the accused and prove the case, Hiwrale said.

The prosecutor told the court that the accused and the victim resided in the same locality in Thane's Bhiwandi town. On October 14, 2018, the victim, her brother and sister had gone to a temple to collect the prasad (holy offering).

The accused took the victim with him to an isolated place under the pretext of getting her a cold drink and raped her, the prosecution told the court. Uttarakhand Earthquake: Tremors of 4.5 Magnitude Felt in Tehri Near Uttarkashi.

The victim later informed about the incident to her parents, who nabbed the accused and handed him over to police. The police subsequently arrested the accused and registered a case against him under relevant provisions.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)