Man From Bihar Gets Life Term Under POCSO In Fastest Rape Case Conviction In India Yet

After all the trauma, pain, and sufferings the victim of a rape case goes through, the battle for her isn’t over with just filing a complaint. Nope. The woman still has to go to the police station to sit through the investigation where, if she is lucky, they will be empathetic towards her, and then she has to wait years and years on end to see the man/men who were guilty of the crime behind bars. How is this fair in any way? I mean, we all know how long the court cases in India go on for. But in a surprising turn of events, in one of the recent rape cases, a man from Bihar accused of raping a minor got a life term and his case was the fastest rape case conviction in India yet!

A POCSO court in Araria district, Bihar, has sentenced a man to a life term in just one day of proceedings. The man was accused of raping an 8-year-old minor girl. This was one of the fastest rape case trials ever in India.

According to the reports, the girl was raped on July 22nd, 2021 and a complaint was lodged against the man the very next day. The rape case was headed and supervised by Rita Kumari, Araria women’s police station in charge. 

Also Read: IAS Officer Rapes A Woman, Gets Suspended And A Case Is Registered Against Him. But With Our Judicial System, Will Justice Be Served On Time?

The POCSO court that was hearing the rape case, recorded the arguments, counter-arguments, and witness statements. They convicted the accused and issued the judgment in just one day. In fact, along with the life term, the POCSO court Special Judge Shashi Kant Rai even charged a fine of ₹50,000 on the man and asked him to pay ₹7 lakh for the minor girl’s rehabilitation. 

The order for the rape case was passed on October 4th, 2021 but it was only on November 26th, 2021 that the order sheet related to the case was made available. Talking about the case, Shyamlal Yadav, POCSO Public Prosecutor said, “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.”

Also Read: This Man Who Raped And Killed A 3-Year-Old Is Using The Nirbhaya Case Convicts’ Ploys To Delay His Death Sentence. This Is Frustrating

In fact, even the Directorate of Prosecution of Bihar government’s Home Department issued a statement that read “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.”

You know, hearing about such news fills me with hope. It reignites my hope in our judicial system and makes me want to believe that even though there are a lot of things wrong with it, they are still trying their best to convict the accusers (especially of rape) fast. 

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