MUMBAI, April 26 -- The Bombay High Court recently upheld the conviction of a young man for kidnapping a 13-year-old girl despite the girl agreeing to elope with him, holding that consent of a minor girl was immaterial. The division bench of justices Sandipkumar More and Abasaheb Shinde, however, cleared Amol Landge of the charge of raping the girl after medical evidence negated the charge completely. Landge was aged 19 years when he eloped with his 13-year-old girlfriend on October 24, 2019 from their village, Kalamnuri in Hingoli district. After the girl's family reported her missing, police traced the duo to Pimpalgaon and brought them to Kalamnuri. Based on the girl's statement that Landge had enticed her away and had penetrative intercourse with her twice after they fled their village, he was booked under sections 363, 366-A, 376(2)(i) and 376(2)(n) of the Indian Penal Code and section 6 (penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. On January 17, 2022, a special POCSO court in Hingoli convicted Landge for kidnapping and raping the minor girl, and handed him a 10-year jail term for rape and 7 years rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping. Landge then approached the high court, challenging his conviction and sentence. While the trial court had held Landge guilty of rape based on the girl's testimony, the high court noted that medical evidence on record and the testimony of the medical officer who had examined the 13-year-old after the incident ruled out the possibility of any such assault. The court thus cleared the accused of the rape charge. Regarding the charge of kidnapping, the court refused to consider the girl's willingness to elope with Landge, saying she was only 13 years old at the time. This was despite the girl's admission during cross-examination before the trial court that she did not raise an alarm when the accused fled with her. "So far as offence under sections 363 and 366-A of the IPC (kidnapping) is concerned, though the victim admitted that she was in love with accused, but admittedly due to her age being of 13 years, it cannot be held that there was no forcible act of the appellant while taking her away and that it was a case of mutual consent and adolescent love," said the bench while upholding the jail term for kidnapping....