Considered to be one of the precedent moves for speedy trials in the rape cases, A POCSO Court in Araria district of Bihar has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for raping an eight-year-old girl in just one day’s proceedings.
Judge Shashi Kant Rai had announced the verdict on October 4 but the order was made available on November 26. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 and directed him to pay Rs 7 lakh for the survivor’s rehabilitation.
The minor girl was raped on July 22 and an FIR was lodged the next day. Araria women police station in-charge Rita Kumari had supervised the case.
The court fast-tracked the trial by recording witnesses, arguments, and counter-arguments; convicting the accused, and issuing the judgement in one day.
“The case in Araria was the speediest trial of a rape case in the country. It beat the record of a court in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia district that wrapped up in three days a rape trial in August 2018,” said POSCO Public Prosecutor Shyamlal Yadav.
“This is perhaps the first case in which punishment has been given in a single day of trial in the country. Before it, in Datia (MP) district, a court had delivered a verdict after three days of trial on 8 August 2018. Bihar has now made a national record by conducting a trial in a single day by giving a life sentence to the convict till his last breath,” stated Directorate of Prosecution of Bihar government’s Home Department.
