- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, August 05, 2022: After a span of 21 months, a 28-year old married youth has been awarded with 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a 14-year old minor girl at Tripura’s Belonia in South Tripura district on Friday.
The District and Sessions Judge of South Tripura district at Belonia judge Ashutosh Pandey announced a 20-year rigorous imprisonment for Chiranjit Pal (28), a married youth, for raping a 14-year-old minor girl.
It is learned that on the 30th of September in 2020, a married youth Chiranjit Pal forcibly raped a 14-year-old minor girl who came to his house against her will, at around 9 PM in the forest of a rubber garden in Madhavnagar area under Manubazar police station of Sabroom sub-division. The minor girl is a relative from the same area who went to Chiranjit Pal’s house for a social event.
The accused Chiranjit went to their rubber plantation at around 9 pm and asked the minor to come to the rubber plantation with some cooked meat for a boozing party. As soon as the minor reached the rubber plantation with a bowl of meat, he attacked like a hyena and raped her. Thereafter, he threatened to kill her if she told anyone about this incident.
Later, when the minor narrated the whole incident to her parents, seven days later i.e. on 6th of October in 2020, the minor’s father filed a written complaint with the Manubazar police station. Manubazar police station took up the case under Sections 341, 376, 506 of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of POCSO Act, started investigation and arrested the accused Chiranjit Pal.
In the meantime, Sub Inspector Satya Ranjan Nandi, the investigating officer of Manu Bazar police station completed the investigation and submitted the charge sheet to the court, and the court heard the testimony of 15 witnesses.
Finally, Special Judge of POCSO Act and Belonia District and Sessions Judge Ashutosh Pandey found Chiranjit Pal guilty and sentenced him to 20 years rigorous imprisonment under POCSO Act, a fine of Rs 20,000 and six months imprisonment in default. POCSO Act Special PP Prabhat Chandra Datta handled the case for the government. Naturally, the minor’s family is happy with this fair trial.
