Man sentenced to 35 years for assaulting minor

A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexually assaulting a minor girl. The court in Kalaburagi also imposed a fine of ₹28,000 on him. The accused, Saibanna Mashale, had raped the girl in a women's government washroom after promising to marry her. Mashale then took the girl to Hubballi and later to Gurugram in Haryana. There, he illegally confined her in a rented room and continued to assault her between June 13 and July 15, 2023. The charges were filed after the victim reported the crime to the police. Investigators from the Aland Police Station gathered evidence and submitted a charge-sheet in court. After hearing the case, Judge Yamanappa Bammanagi found Mashale guilty of several serious crimes. He received specific sentences for each offense. The judge ordered that the District Legal Services Authority pay ₹7 lakh to the victim as compensation within a month.