A special court in Maharashtra's Thane district has sentenced a driver to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for allegedly kidnapping and raping a 17-year-old girl in Bhiwandi four years back. In the order passed on June 21, special judge V V Virkar, hearing cases related to offences linked to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the 30-year-old convict Chandbabu alias Sahil Mustakeem Ali Shah.
Special public prosecutor Rekha Hiwrale told the court that the accused and the victim, then aged 17 years, lived in the same locality at Nagaon of Bhiwandi. The accused lived in the house opposite that of the girl's and used to play loud music, which the victim's mother used to object to. On July 9, 2018, he kidnapped the victim and took her away in his car and later sexually assaulted her, the prosecution said. The accused was convicted under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage), 376 (rape) and also under the POCSO Act.
(With PTI Inputs)
