School van driver gets life imprisonment for raping minor girl student

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Hyderabad: A local court on Monday sentenced a 28-year-old school van driver to life imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a minor girl student at Vanasthalipuram in April 2014. Metropolitan Sessions Judge at LB Nagar court convicted D Balaraj under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sentenced him to life imprisonment, a release from Rachakonda Police Commissionerate said. He also slapped him with a fine of Rs 10,000.

According to police, Balaraj got acquainted with the class 9 girl, about 14 years of age, and lured the victim by saying that he loved her and would marry her. In April 2014, he forcibly took the girl on a bike to his friend's house at Rajendra Nagar at night and repeatedly raped her, police said. His friend was not at home during that time. Following a complaint by the girl, Balaraj was arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

In a similar case, A court has sentenced two men to 20 years of imprisonment for raping a minor girl in 2016. Awarding the jail term to Dhulia Manual and Bikas Majhi, Additional District Judge Ajanta Sarangi also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 each on the convicts for raping the 14-year-old girl at Chakarada village.

In case of non-payment of the fine amount, the convicts would have to serve an additional three months in jail, the judge said. According to the prosecution, the girl was raped on January 1 and 31, 2016 by the two convicts, following which she had lodged a police complaint.

After the completion of the investigation, the police had arrested the convicts. The victim had stated in her complaint that while she was returning home in the evening on January 1, 2016, she was forcibly taken to an isolated place, gagged and raped by Dhulia. Later, on January 31, Dhulia and his friend Bikas had raped her at knife-point in a deserted place.

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