Karnataka: 7 years jail for raping minor for 4 months

BENGALURU: The 51st City Civil and Sessions Court has convicted a man, who had kidnapped and raped a 17-year-old minor girl several times after illegally detaining her for four months, to undergo seven years of imprisonment, on Friday.

The convicted is Sampath alias Sampangi Ramaiah, 37, who hails from Sondekoppa village in Magadi. He was 29 years old when he committed the offence and was working in a medical store, while the survivor was studying first PU.

Sampath was reportedly pestering the minor girl to marry him for two years, but she had turned down his proposal. On December 3, 2008, Sampath along with his associates kidnapped the girl while she was returning from her college in Yelahanka New Town. Later, he took her to various places in Chitradurga, Kamakshipalya, Nelamangala, Magadi and Tumakuru, where he illegally detained her in his relatives’ houses. The houses were in remote areas and he repeatedly raped the girl.

Four-and-a-half months after the kidnapping, the Yelahanka New Town police who were investigating the case based on the complaint filed by her father traced the accused to Ippadi village in Kunigal taluk of Tumakuru district. On April 15, 2009, the accused was arrested at Ippadi and the girl was rescued from a house in the town. Police Inspector of Yelahanka New Town station, M.S. Umesh, had filed the chargesheet in July 2009. Sampath was accused number one, while five others, who assisted him, were also named as accused. However, they are at large from the day the chargesheet was filed.

Sampath was charged under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her to marriage), 342 (wrongful confinement), 376 (rape) of the IPC. The 51st City Civil and Sessions Judge B.S. Rekha found the accused guilty under all the charges and awarded him seven years of simple imprisonment and a penalty of '5,000 under Section 376, one year imprisonment under Section 366, and three months of imprisonment under Section 342. Public Prosecutor M.N. Varad argued on behalf of the government.