70-yr-old man gets life in jail till last breath for raping 8-yr-old girl

Ahmedabad: A special Pocso court in Ahmedabad on Friday sentenced a 70-year-old man to life imprisonment till his last breath for raping an 8-year-old girl.Special Pocso judge, A B Bhatt, also imposed a Rs 1.05 lakh fine on the accused. Of this penalty amount, the court ordered Rs 1 lakh to be paid to the victim towards compensation. Besides, the court also ordered the govt to pay Rs 7 lakh compensation to the victim under the Victim Compensation Scheme.According to the prosecution’s case, accused and the victim live in a nearby chawl. In Jan 2025, the victim went to play with her friends, and the accused lured her to his house by offering her biscuits and raped her. The girl complained about the accused’s to her mother, but did not know the his name.The victim’s parents went to house of accused the next day, but found it locked. They waited till evening, and the victim’s mother again took her to accused chawl and let her play with other children and laid a trap for the accused. The accused called the child to his house and closed the doors. The victim’s mother raised alarm, and the accused was caught. A police complaint was filed, and the accused was booked under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.During the trial, additional public prosecutors D M Thakor and K G Jain examined 13 witnesses and presented 26 pieces of documentary evidence to establish the accused’s guilt.Judge A B Bhatt found the accused guilty of raping the 8-year-old, and while sentencing him, said, “The accused in this case, even after reaching an old age, made the child victim of his lust, and this court believes that such a person should be punished without showing any mercy to him. The maximum penalty for the crime committed by the accused is the death penalty. However, such crimes are not rare; they are occurring in increasing numbers, and the frequency of such offences is rising. Considering the principles established by the honourable Supreme Court on several occasions, this case cannot be considered among the rarest of rare cases. Therefore, instead of the death penalty, a sentence of life imprisonment is deemed just for the accused.”