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NEW DELHI: An Uttar Pradesh man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a seven-year-old girl — nine years after he was convicted in a similar case and later acquitted on technical grounds by the Supreme Court, a lawyer said on Saturday.Additional district judge (POCSO Act) in Shravasti, Nirdosh Kumar, on Friday found Chhotkau alias Alauddin guilty, news agency PTI reported. The incident took place in May in a village under the Ikauna police station area. “On May 9, Chhotkau, an e-rickshaw driver, took the minor in his vehicle from a wedding ceremony to a secluded area where he committed the crime,” said Satyendra Bahadur Singh, additional district government advocate (POCSO Act).Family members later found the girl crying and covered in blood, some distance away, and lodged a police complaint. The girl identified Chhotkau during an identification parade in court, while CCTV footage and DNA test results also confirmed his involvement. On Friday, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh.The earlier caseIn 2016, a local court had sentenced Chhotkau to death for the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in 2011, a verdict later upheld by the Allahabad high court. However, the Supreme Court later acquitted him on technical grounds, citing a delay in the transmission of case information from the police station to the trial court. The appeal was filed by lawyers associated with NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, through a national-level human rights NGO.Crimes against women in Uttar PradeshAccording to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2023 report, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against women in absolute terms (66,381 cases). However, analysts note that this figure reflects the state’s large population about 17 per cent of India’s total.Also Read: UP records lower crime rate than national average in NCRB data The crime rate against women in the state stood at 58.6 per 1,00,000 female population, below the national average of 66.2, and significantly lower than that of Delhi (133.6), Telangana (124.9), Rajasthan (114.8), and Haryana (110.3). Overall, Uttar Pradesh ranked 20th among 36 states and Union territories, with a crime rate of 181.3 per lakh population, compared to the national average of 270.3. Go to Source
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