Cleric gets life term for raping minor girl inside mosque in UP's Hamirpur

A POCSO court in Uttar Pradesh's Hamirpur on Saturday sentenced a Muslim cleric to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl inside a mosque premises, officials said.

Government counsel Rudra Pratap Singh said that on November 29, 2023, the 11-year-old victim went to a mosque with her cousin to study Arabic under the cleric.

After the class, the cleric sent all the other children home but held back the minor girl on the pretext of needing help with household chores and raped her, Singh said.

The girl's family members filed a police complaint after she narrated her ordeal to them, leading to the cleric's arrest, the counsel said.

On Saturday, Additional District Judge Anil Kumar Kharwar held Alam guilty under the relevant sections of law, including the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 26,000 on the offender.

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