A local court sentenced a man to 30 years rigorous imprisonment for raping and attempting to murder his minor sister-in-law two years ago.
Jajpur District and Sessions court judge Jeevan Ballav Das yesterday sentenced 33-year-old Barun Kumar Mohanta of Santara village also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000, failing which he would undergo an additional jail term of three years.
The court convicted Mohanta for raping and attempting to kill his 16-year-old sister-in-law under section 307 of IPC (attempt to murder), sub-section(2) of section 376 (gangrape) and section 4 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
He was sentenced to undergo 10 years of imprisonment each for the three offences amounting to 30 years.
A total of 26 witnesses, including police personnel and doctors, were produced by the prosecution.
Mohanta had visited his father-in-law's house at Sanasailo village in the district on August 9, 2013. He had taken his minor sister-in-law, a student of plus two in a local college, with him. After visiting a few places, he took her to his home at Santara village where he along with his two friends gangraped her.
The culprits slashed her tongue so that she would not be able to narrate the horrific ordeal to others. Then the trio hit her hard on the head following which she fell unconscious.
Mohanta then took her to Sukinda hospital for treatment and told its authorities that it was a case of accident and immediately fled from there.
The girl's parents rushed to the hospital on being informed and shifted her to a private hospital in Cuttack where she regained consciousness after four days and narrated her ordeal to her father.
Based on the girl's statement, her father filed an FIR with the police.
Mohanta was arrested from Nagpur a couple of months after the incident.
The other two accused in this case are yet to be apprehended.
