A court here has sentenced a man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a six- year-old girl, observing it as a "heinous crime" against a child. Additional Sessions judge R R Bhosale, in his order pronounced on Tuesday, also imposed a fine of Rs 16,000 on 21-year-old Ansar Ahmed Fazlur Rehman.

According to the prosecution, the accused, who worked as a labourer in a factory, and the girl's parents were neighbours. They lived in a township in Maharashtra's Palghar district.