India, Aug. 7 -- Holding that a minor's consent has no legal value, a special POCSO court sentenced a Vikhroli man to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping, marrying and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl after eloping with her to Hyderabad. The court, however, acquitted him of rape charges for the period after the survivor became an adult, holding that the prosecution failed to prove the relationship remained non-consensual.

According to the prosecution, Ramesh Babu Mani and the survivor lived in the same locality in Vikhroli and knew each other. On December 15, 2017, when she was about 17 years and six months old, he allegedly took her to Mahbub Nagar in Telangana without her parents' knowledge on the promise of marriage. ...