Yesterday, a special court for the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012, awarded 25 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) to an accused of raping a 10-year-old minor girl in Bihar.

The court of special POCSO judge ADJ Ashutosh Kumar Upadhyay pronounced the judgement on Friday and slapped a ₹50,000 fine along with an additional two years RI to the accused if he failed to deposit the fine, special public prosecutor (PP) Shashi Bhushan Pandey said.

The court also directed the district legal service authority (DLSA) to pay ₹5 lakh in compensation to the minor girl.

According to the case file by the minor girl’s mother, the survivor had gone to attend a marriage in the neighbourhood with her father and elder brother on the night of June 15 last year.

The minor girl was forcibly taken away by a person who lived in the same village and sexually assaulted her in an auto-rickshaw parked on the roadside.

Family members of the minor girl found her in an unconscious state after which she was rushed to a nearby hospital fot treatment.

A case under section 6 of the POCSO Act coupled with other relevant sections was registered the next day.

Police submitted a chargesheet on July 10 under section 376 A, B of IPC and section 6 POCSO Act and the trial commenced on July 15.