Paraplegic man gets 20 years for raping 15-year-old girl

Rajkot: A court in Dhoraji town of Rajkot district has convicted a 28-year-old man, Suresh Mavi, who is 90% paralysed in both legs, for raping a 15-year-old girl at a village near Bhayavadar in June last year. Special Pocso judge A M Sheikh delivered the verdict on Wednesday and ordered the payment of Rs 7 lakh as compensation to the victim. Mavi was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. He was also fined Rs 5,000.The victim's mother filed a complaint on June 12, alleging that Mavi had kidnapped her daughter. Mavi was arrested on June 23, but his co-accused, Sunil Mavi, who allegedly helped take the victim to Ahmedabad, is still at large. According to the prosecution, Suresh Mavi first approached the girl on her way to school with a romantic proposal. He then trespassed into her hut and raped her more than once. Later, he asked her to elope with him. When she refused, he threatened to kill himself and falsely implicate her, which forced her to give in. The victim then met Suresh in the market, and they went first to Junagadh and then to a relative's house in Ahmedabad, where he raped her repeatedly. The defence argued that Mavi's 90% leg paralysis made him physically unable to commit rape. The prosecution countered this with a doctor's statement that the accused's reproductive organs were fully formed and working, showing he was physically able to perform the act despite his disability. Additional public prosecutor K M Parekh said the accused, whose age is "almost double that of the victim", had lured her into his trap. He said, "The doctor's certificate proved that the accused was capable of having sexual relations," and urged the court to convict Mavi based on the evidence and the victim's age. The court convicted the accused under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Section 64(2) and Section 6 of the Pocso Act.