A Thane court has sentenced a 26-year-old man from the neighbouring Palghar district to seven years rigorous imprisonment for raping a woman.
Additional Sessions Judge S C Khalipe pronounced the accused - Ashok Krushna Mukne - guilty under IPC sections 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506(2) (criminal intimidation) and also imposed a fine of Rs 7,000 on him.
Upon realisation of the fine the same will be paid as compensation to the victim, the judge said.
According to the prosecution, the 25-year-old housewife was returning home to Mangarul village when the accused, a labourer, stopped her near the Vanganpada-Mangarul road in Wada taluka of Palghar on October 10, 2013.
The man then gagged her while threatening her with life, and took her to the nearby bushes where he raped her, the prosecution told the court.
The woman, however, managed to free herself from his clutches and raised an alarm while running towards the road where some passers-by came to her rescue.
She later informed the villagers, her husband and in-laws about the sexual assault and lodged a complaint with the Wada police the same day, the prosecution said.
The judge observed that the victim's evidence appears to be trustworthy and is corroborated by other evidence on record.
No married woman will falsely say that she has been raped and therefore, not much importance can be given to minor discrepancies in the case, the judge said while pronouncing the punishment yesterday.
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