Mangalore: The 6th Additional District and Sessions court, also the special court for rape cases, on Friday, convicted a 26-year old auto rickshaw driver for the rape of a 14-year old school student. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Monday October 20.
This is the second judgment by the court since its inception in January.
The special court held Harish Gowda (24), guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl near Kalanja in Belthangady taluk on September 13, 2012. Judge SH Pushpanjali Devi delivered the verdict after examining 18 witnesses in the case that was registered at Uppinangadi police station in Dakshina Kannada (DK) district on September 21, 2012. Victim, a class VIII student, was kidnapped and later raped at an isolated place inside the reserve forest at Anegudde in Kalanja.
On September 13, the girl was returning to her maternal uncle’s house after receiving a bicycle under the government scheme from school. The accused, who was taking Dinesh from Kokkada to Arasinamakki, stopped his autorickshaw on sighting the girl.
He offered to drop her to her house, which is about 2 km from the spot. After Dinesh got down from the rickshaw, the accused took the girl to Anegudde even though she pleaded with him to stop the vehicle near her house, according to the charge sheet. The girl was then dropped near her house after the crime. The accused also threatened to kill her and rape her sister, too, if she told anything about the incident to others, it states.
However, the incident of kidnap and rape came to light, when the girl informed her mother on September 20. Following this, a complaint was filed on September 21 and later inspector Suresh Kumar P submitted a charge sheet under sections 376, 363 and 506 for kidnap and rape to the court on December 20, 2012.
The hearing, which commenced on June 6, 2014, ended on August 2, 2014, he said, adding that it is the second conviction after the special court for rape started functioning in the District Court Complex.
Past conviction
The judge had, on April 27 this year, convicted a 32-year-old man for raping a 17-year-old girl, a distant relative, in Belthangady on May 14, 2012. There are 64 cases of sexual assault pending trial before this special court.
