UP: Serial child rapist sentenced to life imprisonment in Bahraich

Bahraich (UP), Dec 18 (PTI) A court in Bahraich has sentenced a 30-year-old man to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 8 lakh for kidnapping and raping four minor girls earlier this year, officials said on Thursday.

Additional district government advocate (POCSO Act) Sant Pratap Singh said on the intervening night of July 2-3, a five-year-old girl from a village under the Sujauli police station limits went missing from her home while she was sleeping.

The girl was found on July 3. Similar cases of minor girls going missing and then being found the same day were also reported from the same area on June 15, June 25 and June 28.

Since the girls were between 5 and 8 years of age, they were unable to provide much information, Singh said.

Cases were registered in all the incidents, and on the instruction of Bahraich SP Ram Nayan Singh, a team was formed under Circle Officer (CO) Harshita Tiwari to conduct a probe.

The advocate said Tiwari spoke to the girls, and it was revealed that the person who took them away sexually assaulted them.

All the girls described the same physical characteristics of the perpetrator.

Based on the disclosures, police arrested a man of about 30 years of age from the same village, who was identified by a tattoo on his arm.

On Wednesday, Additional District Judge (POCSO) Arbind Kumar Gautam held the accused guilty in all four cases and sentenced him to life imprisonment along with a total fine of Rs 8 lakh, Singh said.

The convict became the first person in the district to be sentenced to life imprisonment in four different cases of this nature, he added. PTI COR NAV ARI