A district court here sentenced a 25-year-old man to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl from Wada taluka in Maharashtra's Palghar district. In an order passed on January 28, district and special POCSO judge R R Vaishnav convicted Rakesh Hiralal under sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The judge sentenced the accused to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and also fined him Rs 4,000. Additional public prosecutor Ujjwala Moholkar informed the court that the accused, who hails from Dausangabad district of Madhya Pradesh, lived in the same locality as the victim and worked in a factory there. In March, 2016, the victim left her home on the pretext of going to school and instead met the accused, Moholkar said.