Bhubaneswar: A POCSO court in the Odisha capital here today sentenced a man to 20 years of imprisonment for raping a minor girl on September 2.

The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on convict Muna Behera. It finished the hearing and pronounced the verdict just 37 days after the crime.

As per the case records, Behera forcibly took the 13-year-old girl to a secluded place and raped her while she was on her way to participate in the Khudurukuni Puja in Chandaka area of the city in the evening hours of September 2 this year.

The Commissionerate Police had arrested the accused after registering a case in this regard on the basis of a complaint lodged by the victim.

Chandaka police Inspector Samita Mishra and Sub-Inspector Jyotshna Rani Pradhan had been asked to probe the incident.

The court convicted Behera under Section 65 (1) of the BNS and Section 6 of the POCSO Act. It pronounced the verdict after examining eight witnesses and other evidence gathered by the police during the investigation, said Special Public Prosecutor Subrat Priyadarshi.

The court also asked the authorities to provide a compensation of Rs 6 lakh to the victim, he added.