India blind football ex-captain gets 10- yr jail for minor's rape [email protected] Dehradun : A local court in Uttarkashi has sentenced former Indian blind football team captain, Pankaj Rana, to 10 years in jail after the golden boot winner was found guilty of abducting and raping a minor girl in 2021. The court of district and sessions judge pronounced Rana, now 23 and currently captain of the Uttarakhand blind football team, guilty on the basis of medical reports though the girl turned hostile during trial. The doctor who had examined the girl said that the "hymen was torn and the scientific forensic lab report stated that Rana's DNA samples were matched with those from the victim's clothes and vaginal swab". Rana, who captained the blind football team twice, had represented the country from 2015 to 2020 in international tournaments for visually-challenged players. He won the golden boot at the All India Blind Football Tournament as a teenager in 2017. While sentencing on Friday, the court noted that since Rana is blind in both eyes, there must be some coaccused who helped him in abducting the girl from her village to a hotel and then to his sister's house from where she was rescued. "But, no evidence was produced or examined," the court added. The court denied compensation to the survivor since she turned hostile. It further stated that even if it is assumed that she had accompanied the accused on her own, no benefit of doubt under the Pocso Act can be given to the accused as she was a minor-17 years and six months-at the time of the purported crime. Special prosecuting officer, Poonam Singh, said the crime took place on July 30, 2021, and FIR under sections 363 (abduction), 376 (rape) of the IPC and sections of the Pocso Act was registered the next day by the girl's brother. Rana was arrested and sent to jail on August 9. He got bail on December 10, 2021. Referring to the crime,Singh said, "She had gone out to get fodder, but did not return home. Later, the police rescued her from the house of Rana's married sister on August 9. " In her statement recorded before the magistrate under section 164 CrPC, the girl had said that about three months prior to the crime, she came to know of Rana through her friend and they "used to speak on the phone". She said that on July 30, he came in a car, possibly accompanied by a driver-and took her to Kharadi saying that he wanted to marry her. After spending the night in a hotel there, he then took her to his sister's place in Trikahli where "he forcibly had physical relations with her several times". Singh added, "But during cross-examination, the girl turned hostile and told the court that he had never kidnapped her, nor had he made any physical relations with her. "
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