Man gets 10-year prison term, fined Rs 5L for drugging, raping neighbour

A Bengaluru court has handed out 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to a man who forcibly took his neighbour into his house, threatened her at knifepoint, drugged her and then raped her repeatedly.

The court also fined him Rs 5 lakh, out of which Rs 3 lakh would be paid to the girl as compensation.  The incident occurred at Attur Layout, Yelahanka, north Bengaluru, in April 2012. The accused is Manjunath whose parents have rented residential property and run a small business.

While he had threatened to kill the victim if she talked to her parents, he bragged about the incident to his friends, who lived in the same locality. He told them how he mixed a sedative into a bottle of Pepsi and made the girl drink it. When she lost consciousness, he sexually assaulted her.

Before that, Manjunath had befriended the girl and talked to her casually. He even tried to get intimate with her but she spurned his advances. But he appeared determined and went on to commit the crime, the prosecution said. The girl became distraught after the incident but gathered the courage to tell her parents about what had happened.

The parents, who run a small shop of tender coconuts and do odd jobs, went to the Yelahanka New Town police station and lodged a complaint. Accordingly, the police registered a case under sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code.

The investigation officer, Umesh, and his team arrested Manjunath a few days after the incident. They also recovered the knife he had used in the crime.

Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, Vijayalakshmi Sangappa Upanal, found Manjunath guilty and sentenced him on Wednesday. S N Hiremani was the public prosecutor.