Rohtak man gets 10-yr jail for exploiting minor wife

Sunit Dhawan
Tribune News Service
Rohtak, October 18

A local fast-track court has sentenced a youth of Singhpura village in the district to 10-year imprisonment for sexually exploiting a minor girl whom he had married. The punishment has been given under the POCSO Act.

The Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Rajinder Pal Goyal has also sentenced the youth, Deepak, to one-year imprisonment under the Child Marriage Act for marrying the minor girl and six-month imprisonment under the Juvenile Justice Act for torturing her.

The youth’s father, Surje, as well as the girl’s father, has also been sentenced to one-year imprisonment under the Child Marriage Act and six-month imprisonment under the Juvenile Justice Act.

Talking to The Tribune here on Friday, Protection-cum-Child Marriage Prohibition Officer Karminder Kaur said that in February, 2017, she got information that the father of a 14-year-old girl was planning to get her married. On inspection, the complaint was found true.

The parents of the girl were counselled and they agreed to cancel the wedding. They also gave an affidavit in this regard.

But in August, 2017, the girl informed Kaur that her family had forcibly married her to Deepak in March and he used to sexually exploit and physically torture her.

Later, the officer informed the police and referred the matter to the Child Welfare Council. With council’s intervention, an FIR was registered under the Child Marriage, Juvenile Justice and POCSO Acts.

Jail for raping 16-year-old

Panipat: A court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Shashi Bala Chauhan on Thursday sentenced a man to 10-year imprisonment for raping a minor girl. His accomplice was sentenced to four-year imprisonment for abducting the girl. On June 28, 2016, the girl's father from a village in Madlauda block had lodged a police complaint about her 16-year-old daughter going missing. On August 27, the police arrested two youths - Vikas and Ashish, alias Ashu. The investigation brought out that Ashish had allegedly abducted the minor girl, while Vikas had allegedly raped her. The judge sentenced Vikas to 10-year jail and imposed a fine of Rs 70,000 fine on him. Ashish was awarded four-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 40,000. tns