Lucknow: A 62-year-old scientist has been accused of raping two minor girls over a period of two month in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra.
Head of the department of Microbiology department of National Jalma Institute For Leprosy, Dr Vishnu Dutt Sharma, "repeatedly raped" a five-year-old girl and a six-year-old girl for two months at his residence.
The scientist, whose retirement is due in September, allegedly lured the girl on pretext of buying them chocolates.
The matter came to light after the mother of one of the girls saw her daughter coming out of Sharma’s house while she was looking for her.
The survivor then revealed about the scientist’s deeds and how he threatened her of dire consequences if she narrated the incident to anyone, following which the parents arrived at Tajganj police station and filed a complaint.
The police booked Sharma under POCSO Act and produced him before the court, from where he was sent to jail.
Recently, the Narendra Modi cabinet passed an executive order to make the rape of a girl under 12 punishable by the death penalty as national outrage grows over sexual violence in the country.
The Cabinet also decided to increase the minimum jail term for rapists to 10 years if the victims are over 16 years old. People convicted of rape of a girl below 16 years will be sentenced for a minimum of 20 years. Also, the centre says rape probes and trials cannot take more than two months each.
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