India, June 30 -- A 30-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment by a special POCSO court in Thane for sexually assaulting a minor girl between 2021 and 2022.

Dhaneshwar alias Dhuleshwar Pujiyalal Kalasuva was found guilty of repeatedly raping the minor and convicted under the Indian Penal Code and on charges of aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the POCSO Act.

The court rejected his defence that the relationship was a consensual "love affair" and said that a minor's consent had no legal validity under the law, as per PTI.

The Kapurbawadi police registered an FIR in July 2022, according to the prosecution. The girl, who had a food stall close to Kalasuva's tea stall in Majiwada, allegedly told her mo...