Sexual assault on minor girl: Udupi court sentences two accused to 5 years in jail

A court in Udupi has sentenced two persons to five years of simple imprisonment on finding them guilty of sexually assaulting a 11-year-old girl, within seven months of the incident reported in July 2025.

Additional District and Sessions Judge, Fast Track Sessions Court-1, Udupi, Srinivas Suvarna on Thursday, sentenced Prashanth Naika and Sharath Shetty, to five years simple imprisonment and imposed a penalty of ₹ 5,000 each for the offence punishable under Section 10 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. In default of payment of penalty amount, they shall undergo further simple imprisonment for 5 years.

The Judge further said that after depositing ₹ 10,000 penalty amount, ₹ 8,000 from it shall be paid as compensation to the minor girl, while the remaining ₹ 2,000 shall be confiscated to the State Exchequer.

Taking into consideration the nature of the offence and family status of the victim, the Judge said the victim has suffered mental agony and trauma due to the act of the two convicted persons. The Judge directed the concerned State Government authority to pay her ₹ 50,000 as victim compensation.

As per the chargesheet, autorickshaw driver Sharath Shetty regularly dropped the victim to the school in Amasebail in Kundapura taluk. Shetty and his friend Naika raped the girl, who belonged to Scheduled Caste. The victim told about the incident to her teacher.

On the complaint to Amasebail police station on July 15, 2025, the police arrested Shetty and Naika. Within 15 days, Deputy Superintendent of Police H.D. Kulkarni investigated the case and filed the chargesheet.

Prakashchandra Shetty, Jayaram Shetty and Y.T. Raghavendra represented the prosecution before the court.