Man gets 10-year RI for raping teenage girl

A middle aged man has been sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by a fast track court here for raping a teenage girl in 2009.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on 45-year-old Pradeep after holding him guilty for the offences punishable under various sections, including Sec 376 (rape), of the IPC and the Arms Act.
"I am of the considered opinion that as far as involvement of accused Pradeep alias Balli in commission of the offences...Is concerned, the same is sufficiently established by the cogent and reliable evidence.
"And in the ultimate analysis, the prosecution has been able to bring the guilt home to accused Pradeep beyond shadows of all reasonable doubts and there is no room for hypothesis, consistent with that of innocence of accused Pradeep," Additional Sessions Judge M C Gupta said.

The judge, however, acquitted co-accused Arvind Kumar who was arrested by police for allegedly harbouring Pradeep and assisting him in preparing forged medical records.
"As regards accused Arvind Kumar, I am of the considered opinion that prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against him," the judge said.

According to the prosecution, Pradeep had raped the 16-year-old victim inside her house in Mangolpuri in March, 2009 after threatening her with a country-made pistol.
Pradeep had sprinkled some "stupefying" substance on the victim's parents while they were sleeping and had then raped her, the prosecution said, adding that Pradeep had threatened the girl not to disclose the incident to anyone otherwise he would kill her family.

Initially, the victim did not disclose the incident to her parents but few days later, she told her mother about it after which a case was registered, the police said.
Pradeep was arrested on April 8, 2009.
During the trial, Pradeep and Kumar had claimed that they were falsely implicated in the case.