Puri: A court in Puri district has sentenced a man to 10 years of imprisonment for abducting a minor girl and forcing her into prostitution, officials said.
The Additional Sessions Judge, Puri, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on convict Sangram Baliarsingh of Khuntia Banpur under Gadishagada police limits.
In case of non-payment of the fine, Baliarsingh will have to undergo an additional one month of imprisonment, the court ordered.
According to the case records, Baliarsingh abducted the 15-year-old girl in January 2014 after offering her a lift. He subsequently took her to Bhubaneswar and allegedly forced her into prostitution.
The minor, however, managed to escape from the red-light area and contacted her parents over the phone. Following the information, police conducted a raid and rescued the girl.
The accused was subsequently arrested and produced before the court after police registered a case and completed the investigation.
The court convicted Baliarsingh after examining the witnesses and considering the evidence collected by the investigating agency, Public Prosecutor Madhusudan Dash said.
