Phulbani: Phulbani POCSO Court on Wednesday sentenced an elderly man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 for raping a minor girl in 2022.
Phulbani POCSO Court judge Sanjit Kumar Behera convicted accused Lupra Digal alias Nupra (61) for raping an eight-year-old girl before sentencing him to 20 years of RI. The court recorded and examined the statements of 17 witnesses before awarding the sentence.
According to the details of the case, at around 4:00 PM on April 9, 2022, the eight-year-old victim along with two of her friends had gone to a mango orchard under Baliguda police limits to pluck mangoes. While the minor girl was plucking mangoes in the orchard Lupra Digal lured her into the nearby forest and raped her.
The rape survivor who was suffering from unbearable pain on reaching home told her mother about her ordeal. As the rape survivor’s father had a job in Kerala she and her mother used to stay at their home. When the victim’s mother confronted elderly Lupra about the incident, he threatened her with dire consequences.
Later the victim’s mother lodged a complaint with the Baliguda police. The police after registering an FIR arrested Lupra and subsequently filed a charge sheet in the matter.
