Rajkot: A Morbi court on Friday sentenced a 42-year-old man to life imprisonment for raping a 15-year-old girl who has learning difficulties in 2021. The court also fined the convict Rs 85,000.
According to the prosecution, the FIR was registered in Jan 2022, but the girl had been raped in Aug 2021 by the accused, who was a shopkeeper. When the victim went to Suresh Jalariya’s shop to buy some groceries, she was forced inside and was raped. The accused knew that the victim was a minor and had learning difficulties. The girl was raped multiple times and was 19 weeks pregnant when the offence was registered. She was also threatened to not tell anyone.
According to the psychiatrist’s report, the victim’s IQ is between 52 and 54, which is medically categorized as “mild mental retardation”. Her mental age was 8.5 to 9.5 years at the time of the offence. After the conviction, the prosecution sought the death penalty, pleading that this case was the rarest of the rare. The court rejected this, stating that the case did not fall into the ‘rarest of the rare’ category.
The court noted that because of the crime, the victim and her entire family would suffer for a lifetime. It also ordered that the victim be paid compensation of Rs 4 lakh.
The court convicted Jalariya under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, sentencing him to imprisonment for the rest of his natural life and imposing a fine of Rs 85,000. The court also ordered that the fine be handed over to the victim.