Two brothers were sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday for raping an 11-year-old girl in Ghaziabad for seven months.

The girl recently gave birth to a boy, fathered by the elder of the brothers.

According to reports, the two brothers -- Pradeep Kumar, 21, and Dileep Kumar, 19 -- lived as tenants in the house of the victim.

They first raped her on January 15, 2022, and repeatedly continued doing the same till a week before the FIR was lodged on September 5, 2022.

The FIR was lodged after the girl's mother noticed her unusually bloated abdomen and tested her with a pregnancy kit. The pregnancy was also confirmed later by doctors at MMG Hospital.

The Ghaziabad police expedited the charge sheet and submitted it before the court on September 27, 2022 while the court framed charges against the duo two days later.

Special Public Prosecutor, POCSO cases, Harish Kumar said: "A medical test confirmed that the girl was 36 weeks pregnant. Her parents gave a police complaint in this regard and an FIR was registered for gang rape and under provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act. During the course of the trial, the girl delivered a boy and after her family refused to take it, the new born was handed over to the child welfare committee. The entire trial was completed in 105 days and both convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 50,000 each by the POCSO court."

The prosecution said DNA profiling by police confirmed that Pradeep Kumar was the father of the new born.

The prosecution said the girl's testimony proved crucial to the case.

During the examination, she told the court that both brothers raped her repeatedly since January 15, 2022, in the absence of her parents and threatened to kill them if she told anyone about the rape.

"The two brothers raped me since January 15, 2022 and threatened me with a knife. They also forcibly gave me Rs 50-100," the girl told the court.

The girl also told the court that Narendra Dera, who operates a mobile phone shop, also raped her several times after the brothers raped her.

The court took cognizance and directed for another case to be lodged and the police charge sheeted three other accused - Dera, a minor girl, and a woman named Neetu.

"The case is in the trial stage. Of the three accused, Neetu is on the run while the minor girl is undergoing trial while Dera is in jail," Harish Kumar said.

The prosecution produced 15 witnesses during the trial, including healthcare staff and doctors from MMG district hospital as well as forensic experts from the forensic science laboratory at Niwari.

The girl was student of class 6 at a government school in east Delhi.
(SJ/IANS)