Miscarriage of justice ? Twenty yearold Rahul Das sentenced to twenty three years of imprisonment, family shellshocked

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, March 24, 2025

That many women and even minor girls victimize youngmen and males of higher ages , taking advantage of relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC)-now turned Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita (BNS)- is well known. This has already happened in many cases in many parts of the country. But the latest such case seems to have occurred in Tripura-in the Gomati district, to be specific. It was on March 19 that the special judge in the district and session court in Udaipur, headquarter of Gomati district, Shankar Lal Dutta sentenced Rahul Das (20) of Chandrapur Murapara area to altogether twenty three years of imprisonment besides imposing a fine for alleged abduction and rape of a minor girl.

But the heart-broken relatives of the youth including his father Abani Das have alleged that the minor girl, a student of Udaipur english medium school , had herself gone to their house and practically forced Rahul to elope with her on September 21 2022. The duo had stayed in a rented house in Dharma Nagar for some time before being picked up from there by police personnel of Udaipur womens police station. But soon after returning home the girl , under pressure from parents and guardians , changed her version and told police that she had been abducted forcibly by Rahul and raped repeatedly by him in the rented house in Dharma Nagar.

Now after the verdict the parents and relatives of Rahul Das grieved that his entire life will now be spent in jail for a light offence for which he was not alone responsible. “We are going to file an appeal in the case but we are dumb-struck by the harshness of the sentence; this girl had practically forced Rahul to elope with her and marry her and now his entire life will be spent in jail; we could have accepted a three or four years jail term but this is too much and too hard ; this is not a corrective punishment but a vengeance ; let us see if we get justice from the higher court” said a close relative of Rahul Das.

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