Baripada, Mar 14 (PTI) A court in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district on Thursday sentenced a man to 20 years in jail for raping a seven-year-old girl.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the 30-year-old man, and in case of default, he has to remain in jail for another period of three months.

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The incident happened in November 2021 in the Baisinga police station area. The man raped the girl when she went to work as a domestic help in a house, police said

The girl's father lodged a police complaint, and after registering a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the police arrested the accused.

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POCSO court judge Santosh Kumar Nayak gave the verdict after examining the statements of the survivor and 16 witnesses, besides the medical report.

The court also directed the Mayurbhanj District Legal Services Authority to pay Rs 4 lakh as compensation to the girl, Special Public Prosecutor Monoranjan Pattnaik said.

(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)