Ahmedabad: A special Pocso court in Kalol of Gandhinagar district has sentenced a 32-year-old man to 20 years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on him for rape and abduction of a minor girl.Additional public prosecutor Jignesh Joshi said that Mahesh Raval was put on trial under the provisions of Pocso and BNS for eloping with a 17-year-old girl in Oct 2025. The court found him guilty of the crime and punished him.In its order, the court stated, “The accused was 31 years old, and the victim was only 17 at the time of the offence. A conducive environment for a child’s comprehensive development is a fundamental right. When rape is committed against a minor, the child suffers unimaginable mental anguish, and it can take years to recover from the mental trauma. Due to the accused’s actions, the minor girl’s life has been devastated.”
