The karate instructor was also sentenced to one-year simple imprisonment. (Representational)
The Udupi Additional District and Sessions Court and Fast Track POCSO Court has sentenced a karate instructor to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a total fine of Rs 22,000 on finding him guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year old girl at a karate class in Padubidri.
The court judge Srinivasa Suvarna sentenced Umesh Bangera to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed fine of Rs 10,000 each for offences under Section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 376 (rape) of IPC respectively.
The karate instructor was also sentenced to one-year simple imprisonment and fined Rs 1,000 each for offences under Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and section 8 of POCSO Act. All the sentences will run concurrently, the judge said.
According to the charge sheet submitted by the police, Umesh Bangera raped the girl on February 12, 2020 after completion of karate classes in Padubidri. On September 27, 2020, Bangera called the girl's mother and asked her to send her daughter for the class. The girl refused to go to the class and revealed to her mother about the sexual assault.
Following her complaint with the Kaup police, the then circle inspector of police Mahesh Prasad arrested Bangera and filed charge sheet for offences punishable under provisions of IPC and POCSO Act. Special pubic prosecutor Y T Raghavendra examined 13 witnesses before the court.
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