A special fast-track court at Kalyan in Maharashtra’s Thane district has sentenced a 39-year-old man to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for raping a 15-year-old girl in 2011.
In its judgment on Monday, the court said the girl had eloped with the accused and converted to Islam, but held that since she was a minor at the time, the conversion could not be treated as voluntary. The court, however, acquitted the man of kidnapping, saying the girl had gone with him willingly.
Additional Sessions Judge PP Muley said the survivor, who was from Dombivli in Maharashtra’s Thane district, had voluntarily accompanied the accused, Azhar alias Badu Mustaq Qureshi, to Lucknow. On that basis, the court cleared him of the kidnapping charge.
At the same time, the judge said the accused had bought a ticket in a different name, which showed a “pre-planned ill intention on the part of the accused”. The court said the evidence showed it was a pre-planned plot by the accused only to have a “physical relationship with victim”.
The court also said the victim was a minor when she converted to Islam and eloped with the accused. “Therefore, participation of the victim in conversion rites cannot be said to be a voluntary act,” it observed.
Referring to a Supreme Court judgment, the court said a person who has sexual intercourse with a girl below 18 years of age is liable to be punished for rape under Section 376 of the IPC, even if the victim is his wife and is between 15 and 18 years old.
It said the accused could not avoid prosecution by taking shelter under Exception 2 to Section 375 of the IPC, which states that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, if she is not under 15 years of age, is not rape.
The court granted a set-off for the period of pre-trial detention already undergone by the accused from February 5 to September 12, 2012. It also recommended the case to the District Legal Services Authority for compensation to the victim. Additional Public Prosecutor Sachin Kulkarni said the prosecution had examined seven witnesses, including the victim, to prove the charges.
The case ended with the court convicting the accused for rape, while holding that the victim’s age at the time of elopement and conversion was central to its findings.
– Ends
Published By:
India Today Web Desk
Published On:
Sep 8, 2026 14:41 IST
