India, Aug. 22 -- A Pune court has sentenced a 24-year-old man to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for raping a six-year-old girl, observing that the accused knew he was HIV infected and nevertheless engaged in a forced and unprotected sexual act that risked transmitting a life-threatening disease.

Special Judge (under POCSO Act) and Additional Sessions Judge Sucheta M Takalikar, in her judgment dated August 20, recorded, "The accused has knowledge that he is an HIV-infected person; then also he has engaged in a forced and unprotected sexual act that risks the transmission of life-threatening disease." The court further observed, "The deliberate and non-consensual act of forced sexual intercourse by a person aware of his HIV positive stat...