The Additional District and Sessions (Special POCSO) FTSC-1 Court in Kalaburagi has sentenced a 22-year-old youth to 20 years of imprisonment for raping a 17-year-old girl.

The court, presided over by Judge S.L. Chavan, delivered the verdict after finding the accused guilty under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The convict has been identified as Navinkumar, son of Dastappa Dudyal, a daily wage worker residing in Haiyyala village of Sedam taluk, Kalaburagi district.

According to the prosecution, Navinkumar targeted the victim from his village, continuously stalking and harassing her while she went out to fetch groceries or answer nature’s call.

Despite her outright rejection of his advances, the accused called her outside her house on March 30, 2025 on the pretext of talking, forcibly took her to a dilapidated house nearby and sexually assaulted her.

He held out death threats to keep her quiet and repeated the assault later that same night. Subsequently, on July 12, 2025, the accused abducted the survivor on a bus to Sedam and later fled to Aziz Nagar, Moinabad in Hyderabad.

He secured employment at a local hotel by falsely claiming that they were orphaned and kept her confined in a rented room where he repeatedly assaulted her until they were tracked down and rescued by the police on July 24, 2025.

A meticulous investigation was carried out by Sedam Circle Inspector of Police Mahadevappa D. and Kurukunta Sub-Inspector of Police Chidananda. The two then filed a comprehensive charge-sheet.

Kurukunta police personnel, including constable Bhagavant and Head Constable Basalingappa, ensured the regular appearance of witnesses before court, while Head Constables Manikrao and Nagaraj served as case writers.

Special Public Prosecutor Shanthaveer B. Thuppad argued the case on behalf of the State, ensuring that critical material and testimonial evidence secured a conviction.

Delivering the quantum of punishment, the court sentenced the convict to 20 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹25,000 under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, with a default sentence of six months simple imprisonment.

For offences under Section 12 of the POCSO Act, the accused received one year of imprisonment and was asked to pay a fine of ₹10,000, carrying a default sentence of one month.

Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the court sentenced him to one year of imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹10,000 under Section 78 for stalking and another year of imprisonment with a fine of ₹10,000 under Section 351(2) for criminal intimidation. The two BNS counts carry a default sentence of an additional month if the fines are not paid. The total fine amount imposed on the convict stands at ₹55,000.

Demonstrating strong institutional support for the survivor’s rehabilitation, the judge directed the Legal Services Authority to disburse a compensation amount of ₹5,00,000 to the minor survivor. The court ordered that this financial relief must be handed over to the victim within one month from the date of the judgment.