Hyderabad: In yet another heinous crime, a teenager and a 21-year-old man have allegedly raped a schoolgirl. Later, police nabbed the teenager and booked him under POCSO Act.
As per the details of the case, the accused Rathan Lal, and his teenage friend who are the neighbors of the girl took her on a joyride on Sunday.
After returning, both the accused took the girl to the terrace of Rathan Lal’s house and raped her.
Finding the girl in depression, her parents started asking the reason behind it.
When the girl revealed her ordeal, the parents approached the police and lodged a complaint.
Based on the complaint, cops registered an FIR and arrested the teenager under POCSO Act.
The search for the prime accused is still going on. The police is analyzing the CCTV cameras to know his whereabouts.
POCSO Act
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was enacted in 2012 to protect the children aged below 18 years from various sexual offenses.
Under the act, any person aged below 18 years irrespective of gender is a child. The act broadly classified sexual offenses against the child into five.
- Penetrative sexual assault
- Aggregative penetrative sexual assault
- Sexual assault
- Aggregative sexual assault
- Sexual harassment
The minimum punishment for penetrative sexual assault under POCSO Act is 10 years in jail if the offense is committed against a girl aged between 16-18 years.
In the case of aggregative penetrative sexual assault, the minimum punishment under the act is 20 years.
As per the act, the person who commits sexual assault on a child is punished with imprisonment of not less than three years whereas, the minimum punishment for the accused of aggregative sexual assault is five years.
In case of sexual harassment, the accused is sent to jail for a term that may extend to three years.
