Man gets 5 year sentence for molesting niece

AURANGABAD: Nanded district judge Savita Barne sentenced relative of minor on Thursday for allegedly molesting the seven-year-old girl in Dhara village of Kinwat taluka in 2014.
The convict, identified as Maruti Yashwant Pawale (20), had lured his niece into his home by asking her to fetch a few things from the village shop and come home with him. He then undressed her and himself, that is when the girl’s mother and other villagers spotted him and handed him over the police.
According to D G Shinde, the assistant public prosecutor, the girl was playing with her friends in the village ground on June 5, 2014 while her mother had gone to work in the field.Around 9.30 am that day, the convict approached the victim and asked her to bring a shampoo pouch and chocolate from the village shop and subsequently took her to his home.
By that time the victims mother came searching for, the girl’s friends told the woman that her husband’s cousin had led the girl to his home. The woman reached the convicts home to find the door latched from inside. She knocked at the door but did not receive any response.
The woman then called out to neighbours and they repeatedly knocked at the door forcing Pawale to open it. They found him and the girl without clothes. They immediately alerted the Kinwant police, who registered an offence against Pawale.
PSI Vivekanand Bharti investigated the matter and submitted a charge-sheet before the sessions court. “The prosecution examined seven witnesses. Following trial the judge, Barne, sentenced Pawale to five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 was also imposed on him,” said public prosecutor Shinde.