Itanagar: A special court in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tirap district designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on Friday sentenced an Assam Rifles jawan to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for criminal trespassing, kidnapping and attempting to gang-rape a minor girl.
The court convicted one Barun Singh, a native of Bihar under Sections 447 (criminal trespass), 365 (kidnapping), 376 read with 511 (attempt to rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 08 of the POCSO Act.
Officials said the incident took place in Changlang on January 22, 2014 when Singh with the help of another Assam Rifles jawan trespassed into the residence of a neighbour, forcefully kidnapped a minor girl, took her to the Assam Rifles campus and tried to gang rape her.
Singh who was then posted at Changlang was later arrested by the police; however, the victim was not able to identify the other individual involved in the crime.
Khonsa Special Judge (POCSO) H Kashyap while passing the judgment expressed that “the duty of the convict is to provide safety and security to the civilians and such heinous offence from a person employed in the paramilitary force was not expected.”
“The convict is not entitled to get any leniency in punishment,” the judge expressed.
The Khonsa court has further referred the matter to the Changlang district legal services authority for providing adequate compensation to the victim under the Arunachal Pradesh Victim Compensation Scheme, 2011.
In addition, it was ordered that the fine imposed upon the convict be given to the victim as cost for her rehabilitation.
