Mumbai, April 3
Sunil More, a Mumbai police constable, who raped a 17-year old girl inside a police chowky in the city's Marine Drive promenade last year, has been sentenced to 12 years' rigorous imprisonment.
Additional Sessions Judge K U Chandiwal who sentenced More also fined the former police officer a sum of Rs 26,500. The money would be paid to the victim for the mental agony suffered by her.
More has been found guilty on three counts - rape by a person on government duty (Art 376 (2)A & B), wrongful confinement and posing a threat to life.
The former policeman who was sacked shortly after the incident has been acquitted of being drunk on duty and demanding Rs 5000 from the girl's companion for lack of evidence.
More, however, insisted that he was innocent. "The police have trapped me......I am not guilty. I am in trouble because of politicians and the media," he told journalists.
The incident happened on April 27 last year when the victim accompanied by a friend cosied up on the rocks off the Marine Drive promenade. More allegedly summoned the two of them for indecent behaviour. According to the prosecution, he sent the boy to arrange for a bribe of Rs 5000 before raping the girl inside the police chowky.
The Maharashtra Government is likely to appeal in the Bombay High Court seeking life imprisonment for the former police constable who was found guilty of raping a minor girl in a police chowky last year.
Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said More had committed a serious offence and, therefore, he had asked the court to award deterrent punishment to him under the IPC which prescribes life sentence as the maximum penal action.
