Bengaluru: In a recent judgment, a special court for Pocso cases in the city found a 22-year-old youth guilty of eloping with a minor girl twice and coercing her into marriage during the second elopement. The court sentenced the accused, Venkatesh alias Venki, a resident of south Bengaluru, to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 41,000.
Judge Ishrat Jahan Ara convicted Venkatesh under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 363 (Punishment for kidnapping), 366 (Kidnapping, abducting, or inducing a woman to compel her to marry, etc.), 376 (Punishment for rape), and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012.
According to public prosecutor Geeta Ramakrishna Gorawar, the first elopement occurred on August 31, 2021, when Venkatesh threatened the girl and forcibly took her to Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, prompting her parents to file a complaint. After his arrest, Venkatesh was released on bail with the condition that he wouldn’t meet the girl or her parents. However, he violated this condition and convinced the girl to elope again on April 16, 2022, leading to their marriage at a temple in Chittoor. Despite this, the police traced them and arrested Venkatesh once more.
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