Noida: 25-year-old man gets 10 years in prison for raping minor girl

A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) court in Surajpur, Greater Noida, has sentenced a 25-year-old man to 10 years’ imprisonment for raping a 15-year-old girl in Noida in 2021, prosecutors said on Monday.

Ankit Paswan, a resident of Barola village in Noida’s Sector 49, allegedly lured the victim on March 19, 2021, offered her a cold drink laced with sedatives and later raped her, according to the court order issued on Monday.

The case was filed when the victim’s father filed a complaint at Sector 49 police station on March 20, 2021, after his daughter did not return home.

“He said his daughter had left the house and did not return on March 19. The complainant suspected that Ankit, a neighbour, played a role in the case,” said Chawanpal Bhati, special public prosecutor.

The police initially registered a case of kidnapping under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and launched an investigation. However, neither the victim nor the accused could be traced for a week. On March 26, the police received information about Ankit’s stay near a local bus stand. After conducting a raid, the police arrested the accused and rescued the victim.

She was immediately sent for a medical examination and Ankit was remanded in custody.

During the trial, the survivor recounted the events of the day she disappeared: “Ankit was a Facebook friend. He called me to take me to Bhangel. There he offered me a cold drink… soon I lost consciousness. He called a car and took me somewhere. When I regained consciousness, I found myself in a room in Gurugram. He said he would marry me and raped me. On March 26, he took me to Noida, where the police arrested him and rescued me.”

Meanwhile, the accused’s lawyer Kavita Chauhan argued that the victim went with Ankit voluntarily.

“The victim had also started wearing ‘mangalsutra’ and ‘sindoor’. This shows that she had married the accused voluntarily. The accused had also arranged accommodation and clothes for the victim and they were living like a married couple,” she said.

Dr HM Lavania, who conducted the medical examination of the victim, said that she had no external injuries and added, “The victim refused to undergo internal examination.”

During the trial, the court focused on determining whether the victim was a minor and whether she had been lured and raped under the pretext of marriage.

Documents from a private school where the victim attended confirmed that she was 15 years old at the time of the crime. The court also relied on the victim’s statement that she had been given a cold drink laced with sedatives and then raped.

Saurabh Dwivedi, Additional Sessions Judge, POCSO 2, convicted the accused on Saturday and sentenced him on Monday.

“Ankit Paswan is sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine ₹20,000 under Section 4 of the Pocso Act; also sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine ₹10,000 under Section 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code and a further seven years imprisonment and ₹10,000 fine under Section 366 (abduction, abduction or inducement of woman to forced marriage) of the IPC,” the court said in its 14-page judgment.