Man sentenced to 20 years in jail for raping deaf & dumb girl

Baripada: A court here on Wednesday sentenced a 48-year-old man to 20-year rigorous imprisonment for raping a deaf and dumb minor girl.

Mayurbhanj Additional District Judge Ajit Kumar Singh sentenced Ujal Kumar Nath after holding him guilty of raping the girl and convicting him under section 376 D of the IPC and POCSO (The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act 2012.

According to the prosecution, the incident dates back to February 1, 2015 when the seventh standard deaf and dumb girl had gone to her village pond at Dumuridhia under Kuliana, where Nath and his accomplice Jateswar Palei raped her.

The police arrested Nath after the victim's father lodged an FIR at the Kualiana police station. While Nath was arrested, his accomplice is still at large.

The ADJ also imposed a penalty of Rs 15,000 on Nath and ordered that he would undergo further rigorous imprisonment for six months in case of default in payment of the fine.