Thane: A special Thane court has sentenced a 28-year-old private tutor to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor girl in 2013. Special judge for Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases, S P Gondhalekar, also imposed a fine of Rs 22,000 on convict Prashant Sankatprasad Tripathi, a resident of Digha in Navi Mumbai, last week. Additional Public Prosecutor Ujjwala Moholkar told the court Tripathi raped the girl on February 12, 2013. The victim, then 15, used to go to Tripathi's home for tuition classes.

On the day of the incident, he called the girl to his residence and locked the door from inside and raped her, the public prosecutor said. "He also threatened her against revealing the incident to anyone. Next day, she refused to go for tuition. When her mother asked her the reason, she narrated her ordeal," Moholkar said.

Thereafter, the girl's parents and neighbours accosted Tripathi. Initially he denied the charge but later admitted to having committed the crime, she added. He was arrested and booked under IPC sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and sections of the POCSO Act. The court ordered that of the total amount of fine, Tripathi has to pay Rs 10,000 to the victim.