Mangaluru: Three sentenced to imprisonment in POCSO case
Mangaluru (PTI): vThe judge K M Radhakrishna also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convicted person, Dervi D'Souza, a painter from Kotekar on the outskirts of the city.
The survivor's mother, Leena Noronha, who assisted him in the crime, was also sentenced to 14 years in jail and a fine of Rs 25,000 for offence punishable under Section 17 (abetment of sexual assault) of the POCSO Act.
Another accused, Melvin D'Souza who sheltered the woman and the girl was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 30,000 for failure to report the case.
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The prime accused Dervi D'Souza was also sentenced to seven years and fined Rs 25,000 under IPC section 366 (abduction) and two years for offence punishable under IPC section 343 (wrongful confinement). The sentences will run concurrently, the judge said.
According to the charge sheet, the survivor, who was aged 15, was staying with her mother in a house after the death of her father. Dervi D'Souza frequently visited the house and financially helped Leena. During one of his visits in 2016, he sexually assaulted the girl. When the victim told her mother about it, the latter backed D'Souza who was allowed to continue the assault.
When neighbours started expressing doubts, Dervi D'Souza took the girl and her mother to Melvin's house in May, 2016, where he continued the sexual assault.
On December 17, based on definite information, the district child protection unit raided the house and rescued the girl. Based on her statement, the Ullal police registered a case against the three accused persons and a charge sheet was filed after detailed investigation.
Special public prosecutor Venkataramanaswamy examined a total of 20 witnesses during trial. The judge, in his order, also directed the chairman of the district legal services authority to pay Rs 1 lakh to the survivor as compensation.
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EC begins phased publication of post-SIR rolls in Bengal; 1.18L names deleted in Bankura
Kolkata (PTI): The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday began publishing the post-SIR electoral rolls in West Bengal in phases, with figures from Bankura district indicating that around 1.18 lakh names have been deleted since the exercise commenced.
Hard copies of the updated rolls were put up in districts including Bankura and Cooch Behar, even as the lists were yet to be made available online on the designated EC portals and mobile application till reports last received.
In Bankura, where the electorate stood at 30,33,830 when the SIR exercise began on November 4 last year, the number in the draft rolls published on December 16 had come down to 29,01,009.
Following hearings and scrutiny during the subsequent phase of the SIR, around 4,000 more names were deleted. However, a few thousand fresh applications under Form 6, meant for the inclusion of new voters, were approved.
As a result, the final electoral roll of Bankura, considered a turf where both BJP and TMC have equal political dominance, now stands at approximately 29,15,000, indicating a net deletion of around 1.18 lakh names since the commencement of the SIR, a senior district official said.
Election Commission officials said the deletions were primarily due to death, migration, duplication and untraceability, while additions were processed after due verification.
Reports from other districts are still awaited.
The publication of the rolls is being carried out in phases across districts, and supplementary lists are expected to be issued as adjudication of pending cases continues.
According to officials, the publication classifies 7.08 crore electors, whose names appeared in the draft rolls issued on December 16, into three categories -- 'approved', 'deleted' and 'under adjudication/under consideration'.
Commission sources also indicated that in parts of north Kolkata, nearly 17,000 names were found missing from the approved rolls, further fuelling political reactions from rival parties.
The draft rolls published on December 16 had already seen the state's electorate shrink from 7.66 crore -- the figure based on names appearing in the rolls till August 2025 -- to 7.08 crore, with over 58 lakh names deleted during the first phase of scrutiny.
The SIR process, the first such statewide revision since 2002, began on November 4 last year with the distribution of enumeration forms. The commission took 116 days to provisionally complete the exercise and publish what officials described as a "final but dynamic" list, as adjudication in several cases is still underway.
The second phase involved hearings for 1.67 crore electors -- 1.36 crore flagged for 'logical discrepancies' and 31 lakh lacking proper mapping.
Around 60 lakh voters continue to remain under adjudication, meaning their inclusion or exclusion will be determined in supplementary rolls to be issued in phases.
Meanwhile, long queues were seen outside district election offices and cyber cafes across the state as anxious voters thronged centres to check their names in the updated rolls.
In districts such as Bankura, North 24 Parganas and parts of Kolkata, hard copies of the lists were put up on notice boards, drawing steady streams of residents since morning. Many were seen scanning page after page of printed sheets, some taking photographs on their mobile phones, while others sought help from officials to trace their entries.
At several district magistrate and sub-divisional offices, voters waited in serpentine queues for their turn to verify whether their names figured under the 'approved', 'deleted' or 'under adjudication' categories.
With the updated rolls yet to be fully accessible online, cyber cafes reported a sudden surge in footfall. In many neighbourhoods, small computer centres witnessed lines of people waiting outside, clutching voter ID cards and enumeration slips, reflecting both public anxiety and the high political stakes surrounding the revision exercise ahead of the assembly elections due in April.
