Congress leader gets 9-year-term for raping minor

RAIGARH: A Congress leader was sentenced to imprisonment for nine years by a local fast track court, for raping his minor domestic help on Wednesday, in Raigarh district. The incident was reported early this year.
A fine of Rs 15,000 was also imposed on the accused leader identified as Arvind Tiwari, 38, holding him guilty of raping the minor girl, said public prosecutor Rajkumar Upadhyay said.
According to Upadhyay, the accused had allegedly raped the 17-year-old girl at his empty house in Kotra road area here on January 11 this year. He had also threatened the victim of dire consequences if she revealed the incident to anyone.
Later, the victim's mother lodged a complaint with City Kotwali police station, following which Tiwari was arrested under charge of rape and other sections of IPC, he said. After hearing on Tuesday evening, additional district judge Ashok Kumar Sahu convicted him for the offence and pronounced the verdict, he said.
The court also observed that in case the accused failed to compensate the victim, Tiwari would face six months of additional imprisonment. Tiwari had contested the corporators' election of Raigarh Municipal Corporation on Congress ticket in 2009.