In a landmark judgement, a special POCSO court of Dharmanagar under North Tripura district pronounced 20 years of rigorous imprisonment to two own brothers for raped a minor girl.

Giving details, government advocate Sudharshan Sharma said that on February 26, 2022, the FIR was lodged by the victim girl against two brothers, identified as Prasanta Debnath (26) and Pappu Debnath (24) of Rajnagar village of Anandabazar under Dharmanagar subdivision.

He said that before one year of the FIR, the victim girl on way home from Jiban Tripura school, went to the house of the accused brothers to drink water.

But, elder brother Prasanta Debnath taking the advantages of loneliness, he forcefully raped the victim girl. After that incident, the accused youth threatened the victim girl that if she does not meet him, then he will kill her. When, the terrified victim girl met him, accused again raped her and incidentally, the younger brother of accused, Pappu Debnath noticed the incident and he has also threatened the girl to tarnish her image publicly, said advocate.

Taking advantage of social stigma, younger brother Pappu also raped her multiple times and the victim girl became pregnant.

Later, parents of the victim girl lodged their complaint before local Gram Panchayat demanding justice and after rounds of arbitrary meetings, the victim family did not get justice and then, they filed the FIR on February 26th, 2022 at the Women police station of Dharmanagar.

Government advocate, Sudharshan Sharma said that both accused brothers were arrested by the police and during a two years eight months long trial, the special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court recorded the witnesses 23 persons and pronounced the judgement on Tuesday (November 5th).

The special court judge, Angshuman Debbarma sentenced ten years of jail to both brothers under section 376(2) (N) of IPC and fine of Rs. 10,000 and one year of rigorous imprisonment under section 506 of IPC. The court also pronounced 20 years of rigorous imprisonment to both accused brothers  and a penalty of Rs. 25,000 each under section 6 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

Government advocate said that all three imprisonments will go simultaneously and he also praised the investigation by the investigating officer (IO), police Sub-Inspector (SI) Usharani Debnath of Dharmanagar women police station.