Eight years RI for man convicted in rape case
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, June 27 2025: The Fast Track Special Court No 1 Manipur sentenced one Lairenjam Naoba, who was earlier convicted by the same court for the February, 2022 incident of raping a minor girl, to eight years rigorous imprisonment (RI) and told to pay Rs 1 lakh as fine.

As per the report submitted by the prosecution regarding the case, father of the minor girl filed a complaint at Imphal West women police station on February 8, 2022 that his 13-year old daughter was threatened, kidnapped, confined and modesty outraged by Lairenjam Naoba (21) son of late Mera of Lairenjam Awang Leikai.

Based on the report, police carried out investigation and arrested Naoba.

Special Public Prosecutor (PP) also placed before the court that the convicted Naoba raped the minor girl without any mercy and prayed for awarding maximum penalty according to law of the land.

As the convict committed the crime even after entering married life and having own children, the special PP appealed the court to award befitting punishment so that such ghastly crimes are not repeated by any individual.

During the sentence hearing conducted Thursday, convict Naoba placed before the court that he is 24 years old now and have wife and two sons.

Naoba also told that court that he is unaware if his sons go to school or not while his wife stopped coming to jail to meet him.

Naoba also expressed regret for the incident and promised not indulge in such acts in future.

Imphal West deputy legal aid defence counsel, who appeared for the convict, prayed to the court for awarding minimum punishment to the convict in the interest of future of his two sons.

The convict being young and have no criminal record in the past could rectify his life and come to the right path, the defence counsel placed before the court and also prayed for deducting the time spent by the convict in judicial custody.

After patient hearing of the statements from both the prosecution and defence counsels, the court sentenced Naoba to eight years' rigorous imprisonment and told the convict to pay Rs 1 lakh as fine or else the jail term will be extended by one year.

The court also ruled that Rs 80,000 out of Rs 1 fine shall be paid to the victim.

The court also ruled that time spent by the convict spanning three years, four months and 17 days while in judicial custody be commuted from the total sentence period.

The court also directed state government to pay Rs 2 lakh to the victim for treatment of the mental trauma she suffered, along with directing that the penalty amount should be paid to the victim's family within 30 days.

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