Jalandhar, December 8: The court of Ferozepur District and Sessions Judge SK Aggarwal has sentenced a grocery shop owner to life imprisonment for raping a seven-year-old Scheduled Caste girl.
The court sentenced Rajesh Kumar alias Bittu of Mohan Ke Uttar village of Jalalabad tehsil in Ferozepur district to life imprisonment on two counts of rape and violation of the SC/ST Act. Both sentences would run concurrently.
A fine of Rs 20,000 each has also been slapped on Rajesh. The amount would be handed over to the victim as compensation.
“The convict has committed a heinous crime with a small kid. Therefore, he deserves severe punishment,” the judge observed.
The court shot down the defence plea that complainant Baldev Singh, uncle of the victim, was trying to fix the convict.
In his defence, Rajesh had alleged that Baldev used to buy groceries from him on credit and that Rs 15,000 was due to him over which a dispute had arisen. The court also brushed aside Rajesh’s suggestion that victim’s mother Kulwinder Kaur was also taking groceries from him on credit. Kulwinder denied the allegation.
The prosecution proved that on August 25 Rajesh had pounced upon the child and committed the offence punishable under Section 376 of the IPC.
The case had come to light after the video of the heinous crime went viral.
Baldev got the case registered after bringing the video into the notice of Guru Har Sahai DSP Jasbir Singh. Following this Rajesh was booked.
