A POCSO court in Chennai on Monday sentenced eight people to life imprisonment for raping a 13-year-old minor girl and pushing her into prostitution. Also, 13 people, including a police inspector, a BJP worker and a journalist, were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for their involvement in the case. The special court had convicted all the 21 accused on September 15 and announced the sentence today. This court has been set up to deal with cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.
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Besides awarding jail sentence to the convicts, the court’s presiding officer M Rajalakshmi directed the state government to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the victim. The judge said that two lakh rupees of the fine imposed on the 21 accused should also be given to him. Those who have been sentenced to life imprisonment include the stepfather and stepmother of the victim. Suspended Inspector C Pugalendhi, attached to the Ennore police station, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist G Rajendram and a private channel journalist Vinobaji are among those sentenced to 20 years in prison in the case.
On the complaint of the victim’s mother, the women’s police station of Varshmenpet had registered a case against 26 people and in November, 2020 the chargesheet was filed which was of more than 560 pages. According to the police, out of these 26 accused, four are absconding while one has died. The case had been in the limelight because then the 13-year-old victim was raped by more than 100 people and pushed into prostitution.
(This news has not been edited by NewsBust team. It has been published directly from Syndicate feed.)