Rare 25 year jail term for youngster in POCSO case in Kothagudem

The 22-year-old youth, Azmeera Sai Kiran of Thurubaka village of Dummugudem mandal in the district was accused of raping the 16-month-old girl on June 24, 2018.

Kothagudem: In a rare sentence, the first additional sessions judge and special judge for POCSO cases, M Shyam Sree, on Wednesday sentenced a youngster convicted for the rape of a 16-month-old baby girl to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment, one of the maximum sentences under the Act so far.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on Sai Kiran in default of which he should undergo six months of imprisonment.

---

The 22-year-old youth, A. Sai Kiran of Thurubaka village of Dummugudem mandal in the district was accused of raping the 16-month-old baby girl on June 24, 2018.

The incident occurred when the infant’s parents were attending a marriage reception at the village. Busy with the ceremony, they handed over the child to one of their relatives, a teenage girl, asking her to look after the child.

Sai Kiran, who lived close by, took the child to his house on the pretext of entertaining her and raped her. When the child started crying loudly, he came out of the house, handed over the child to her mother and went away. As the child continued to cry, the mother inspected her to check whether she had suffered any injuries and then found what happened to her.

Following this, the villagers caught hold of Sai Kiran and thrashed him before the police intervened and took him into custody.

The then Dummugudem Inspector of Police B Balakrishna booked a case and ASP Sangram Singh Patil was the investigation officer in the case. Twelve witnesses, including the parents of the child, were questioned in the case.

Though there have been 20 year jail terms under the POCSO Act, 25 years is a rare sentence in Telangana. There are only very few such 25 year sentences under the POCSO Act in other States as well.