Kota: A POCSO court in Jhalawar Monday sentenced a 45-year-old man to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment for repeatedly raping his 16-year-old daughter. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 12,000 on the convict.Pronouncing the verdict, Judge Sanjay Kumar Bhatnagar held the father guilty under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act .Public prosecutor Dipesh Bhargav said the court recorded the statements of 14 witnesses and examined 27 documents during the trial. The convict was in judicial custody since his arrest in the case.According to the prosecution, the ordeal of the minor survivor who lived with her father and stepmother came to light last year when she, accompanied by her paternal aunt, approached Bhalta police in Feb last year to lodge a formal complaint.In her complaint, the survivor stated that her biological mother abandoned the family due to continuous physical abuse and harassment at the hands of her husband. He married another woman following his first wife’s departure.While the survivor and her elder brother initially continued to live in the same house, the latter eventually left home, unable to tolerate the frequent thrashings by their father.The public prosecutor said that one day while the girl was alone at home, her father forcibly dragged her to his bed and raped her. He threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed the matter to anyone, and continued to sexually exploit her thereafter by taking advantage of her isolation.
