Controversial former MLA sentenced to 25-year imprisonment in rape case of minor girl
New Delhi: A former MLA from Mawhati constituency in Meghalaya, Julius Kitbok Dorphang has been sentenced to 25-year imprisonment after the court found him guilty in a case relating to the rape of a minor girl.
According to an NDTV report, Dorphang was found guilty in a rape case of a 14-year-old minor girl in 2017.
Dorphang was sentenced by F.S. Sangma, a special judge who specifically adjudicates on Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases in Ri-Bhoi, the district from where Dorphang was elected to the state legislative assembly.
According to a report by the Shillong Times, the judgment had been pronounced on August 13 and the charges read on August 24, which also included a fine of Rs 15 lakh in addition to the jail term.
The ex-legislator was also the founder and chief of the separatist group Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC). After surrendering to the police in 2007, Dorphang contested state assembly elections in 2013 and was elected from the Mawhati seat in the Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya.
Dorphang was among 12 people arrested for being involved in an illegal sex trafficking ring in the state on the basis of nine FIRs filed by the state Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR). On January 4, 2017, a district court filed a non-bailable warrant against Dorphang, following which he went into hiding.
Dorphang was finally apprehended at a bus terminus in Guwahati, Assam, and brought to a district court in Shillong where he was charged under the POCSO Act as well as the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act. He was then put in the Nongpoh district jail where he remained until 2020, when a single-judge bench of the Meghalaya high court granted him bail on medical grounds. He has been shifted back to the district jail following his conviction, according to the Shillong Times report.
Dorphang’s legal counsel, Kishore Ch Gautam has noted that they will appeal the judgment in the Meghalaya high court.
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Exotic reptiles seized from passenger at Kempegowda International Airport
Bengaluru, Aug 13 (PTI): Customs officials at Kempegowda International Airport near Devanahalli said they had seized several exotic and protected reptiles, including snakes, from a passenger who arrived from Bangkok.
The seizure was made on Tuesday during luggage screening, when reptiles were found packed in boxes concealed inside the passenger’s baggage, they said.
The animals, smuggled illegally into the country, were confiscated, and the passenger is under investigation.
The seized reptiles have been handed over to the Forest Department for further action, they added.
