A court in Maharashtra’s Jalna district has sentenced a 21-year-old man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for repeatedly raping a school-going girl, who became pregnant and delivered a baby. Ambad Sessions court judge Prahlad Bhagure also imposed a fine of Rs 2,500 on the convict Yogesh Saste.
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According to the prosecution, Saste lured the minor saying he would marry her. Over a period of one year, he sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. The teenager’s mother learnt about the crime a few months after her daughter became pregnant. After she delivered a girl child, the mother filed a police complaint against Saste in April 2021.
During the trial, 9 witnesses, including the girl’s mother and her school’s headmaster, were examined by the court, said the prosecution. The court held Saste guilty under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Indian Penal Code.