Ahmednagar (Maharashtra):
A court in Ahmednagar has sentenced 20 persons, including a policeman and some local personalities, to life imprisonment in a case of sexual exploitation and trafficking of a 15-year-old girl.
Sessions Court Judge Makarand Keskar, who delivered the judgement in the nearly five-year-old case, imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 each on the convicts.
Half of the fine amount will be given to the victim, said Vijay Sawant, the lawyer for CID, which probed the case.
Among two other accused, one died during the trial, while the other is in coma following a road accident.
The case came to light in 2005 when the minor girl was rescued by a police team on her father's complaint. A local local NGO, Snehalaya, assisted the police in their probe.
According to Sawant, the girl was sexually exploited over a period of six months and during this she was taken to various places in Maharashtra.
The accused were convicted under IPC sections 120(B), 376 (rape), among others and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, Sawant said.
Among the guilty, Ashok Kasar is a constable, while Rajendra and Ravindra Thorat, both brothers, own a local milk factory. One of the convicts, Abdul Haq Fakir Mohammad Kureshi, is a civic engineer, while Harjeetsingh Rajpal and D B Gondkar are hotel owners. Vasant Mangu Pavra is a former Chairman of Panchayat Samiti in Nandurbar district.