Rourkela: A special Pocso court in Sundargarh on Tuesday convicted four men in a case involving abduction, trafficking and gang-rape of a minor girl, sentencing two of them to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment each for gang-rape and awarding three years’ rigorous imprisonment to the other two for abducting and trafficking the survivor.According to the prosecution, the minor went missing from a village in Sundargarh district on March 22, 2023. Her mother lodged a complaint the following day, alleging the involvement of a local man. Police registered a kidnapping case and subsequently detained the suspect.During the investigation, police alleged that the accused had taken the minor to a forested area, where he and another man sexually assaulted her. Both were arrested and sent to jail. As the girl remained untraced, police continued the search and, in July 2023, located and rescued her from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.Based on the survivor’s statement, police found that after the sexual assault, she had allegedly been abducted and trafficked to Mathura by two other men on the promise of providing a job. The two accused were subsequently arrested and remanded in judicial custody.Pronouncing the verdict, additional district judge-cum-presiding officer of the Pocso court, Sundargarh, Gyana Ranjan Pattnayak, convicted all four accused. Two convicts, aged 56 and 40, were sentenced to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment each for gang-rape and fined Rs 20,000 each. Default of payment would attract an additional year’s rigorous imprisonment.The court sentenced the other two convicts, aged 30 and 38, to three years’ rigorous imprisonment each for abducting and trafficking the minor and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on each. Failure to pay the fine would attract an additional six months of rigorous imprisonment.The court also directed the District Legal Services Authority, Sundargarh, to pay compensation of Rs 8 lakh to the survivor.
