The Karnataka High Court has overturned the acquittal of a painter from Mysuru who was accused of abducting and raping a minor girl in 2013. A division bench of Justices HB Prabhakara Sastry and Umesh M Adiga held the painter guilty of the charges and sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine on the painter under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The prosecution’s case was that on October 13, 2013, the painter forcibly took the 14-year-old girl on his motorcycle after threatening to consume poison if she did not accompany him. He then transported her to various villages in Hunsur and Periyapatna taluks where he subjected her to repeated rape over a period of 10 days. The girl’s parents filed a complaint after which the police rescued her. The other accused in the case had claimed that the girl had left home by herself due to objections to an arranged marriage.
The case had previously been tried in a special POCSO court where the accused were acquitted due to doubts over the prosecution’s narrative. However, the police, in their appeal to the Karnataka High Court, argued that the girl’s age had been proven and criticized the trial court for not considering the evidence. Meanwhile, the accused claimed that the girl had gone with him voluntarily and engaged in consensual sex. The High Court bench observed that considering her age, consent was not a valid argument.
The Karnataka High Court bench also noted that the trial court had made inaccurate assessments regarding the girl’s age. Following the High Court’s decision, the painter has been given 45 days to surrender before the jurisdictional court. The bench ordered the painter to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 to the girl, but upheld the acquittal of the six other accused in the case.

Read More: [Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/hc-reverses-acquittal-of-mysuru-based-painter-gives-him-10-year-jail/articleshow/107834989.cms)