SHILLONG, March 28: Former Meghalaya police officer, Nurul Islam was on Monday awarded life imprisonment and fined Rs 8 lakh after he was convicted of raping two minor sisters at Ampati police station in the South West Garo Hills district in March 2013.
The court of the POCSO special judge, East Khasi Hills, sentenced Islam under Section 376 (2) of the Indian Penal Code besides imposing a fine of Rs 3 lakh to be paid to the second rape survivor (elder sister).
Islam was also sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years under Section 10 of the POCSO Act, 2012, and asked to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh each to be paid to both the survivors.
The court also sentenced him to imprisonment for a year under Section 342 of the IPC, 1860, and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 to be paid to the two survivors separately and to one of their distant cousins detained at the Ampati police station on the night of March 13, 2013.
In addition, he was sentenced to imprisonment for five years under Section 354 of the IPC and fined Rs 50,000 to be paid to both the survivors separately.
Additionally, Islam was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years under Section 450 of the IPC and fined Rs 1 lakh to be paid to the second survivor.
He was also sentenced to imprisonment for two years under Section 506 of the IPC and fined Rs 50,000 to be paid to the second survivor.
In its 87-page order, the POCSO court said that the accused, by his act, has brought immense disrepute and dishonour to the institution of which he was, unfortunately, a part and shaken the faith of the people in the system.
“It is absolutely necessary that this court imposes the appropriate sentence to re-affirm the faith of the survivors and the populace in the system; to reaffirm the belief that it is not the institutions and the system which is flawed; that the institution and system will not tolerate the aberrant and errant personnel who through his wayward actions tarnish the principles and ideals on which the institution and the personnel who man it, stand firm,” the court said.
The special public prosecutor of the POCSO court, Evalarisha Rynjah had earlier pleaded for life imprisonment, the maximum sentence, along with a fine.
The court had convicted Islam on March 24 for committing offences defined and punishable under the POCSO Act, 2012, and also under the IPC of 1860.
Islam raped the younger sister, aged 13, at Ampati police station on March 13 and repeated the crime the next day. On March 31 of the same year, he raped her 17-year-old sister at gunpoint at the victim’s residence and threatened her against reporting the crime to anyone.
Following this, the father of the victims filed an FIR against the police officer.