Minor rape case: Two get life term, 2 others 7-yr jail term

Hoshiarpur, January 8

Additional District and Sessions Judge Neelam Arora on Wednesday convicted four persons accused in a case of rape of a minor schoolgirl and blackmailing her by making a video of the act.

While the two accused were sentenced to life imprisonment, the other two were sentenced to undergo seven years’ imprisonment. Convicting main accused Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Uchapind in Jalandhar district, and Mandeep Singh of Chakk Raju Singh, Jalandhar, the court sentenced them to life imprisonment and fined them Rs 75,000 each. They would have to undergo additional imprisonment of six months in case they fail to pay the fine.

The court convicted two other accused in the case, Manjinder Singh of Chakk Raju Singh village and Taranjit Singh, alias Tarna, of Kandola village in Jalandhar district, and sentenced them to seven years’ imprisonment and fined them Rs 26,000 each. In case of non-payment of fine, they would have to undergo additional imprisonment of two and a half months.

On June 22, 2018, on the basis of a complaint of the victim, a student of Class IX, the police had registered a case against the accused under various sections of the IPC and the POCSO Act. In her complaint, the victim stated that the accused lured her into marrying her and took her to a tubewell outside Sahaipur village and raped her and made a video of the act. — OC