Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Oct 13: Judge of the additonal district and sessions court here, Prakash Khanderi, delivered a judgement on Friday October 12, sentencing Manjunath Naik (33) to ten year of rigorous imprisonment, apart from levying a fine of Rs 80,000. Naik was accused of gatecrashing into a house about eight years back, raping a 20-year-old lady, and impregnating her in the bargain.

This gruesome incident had happened at Kalmatha within Kalthodu village within the limits of Byndoor police station on March 10, 2010.

The then Byndoor police circle inspector, Kantaraju, had investigated the case and filed charge sheet, duly identifying nine persons as witnesses. Eight among them were examined during the course of the trial.

In the early days of the trial, the accused had stood his ground claiming that he had not fathered the baby. The hearing wentn on for about eight years. On February 15 this year, district public prosecutor, Prakashchandra Shetty, filed application seeking permission to conduct DNA test of the accused and the baby. After the judge permitted the same on March 5, the test results showed that the DNA of the accused matched with that of the child. This gave a major twist to the case.

The judge awarded ten years RI and fine of Rs 40,000 for rape, one year imprisonment for using filthy words, three years RI and Rs 20,000 fine for posing death threat, a year's RI and Rs 20,000 fine for promising to marry and duping. All these sentences will run concurrently. The judge also said that the victim of the rape can approach the district legal services authority to get compensation.