A local court in Maharashtra has sentenced the former superintendent of a government-run orphanage in Baramati to one-month rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 52,000 on her over a child marriage held there in 2014.
A press release issued by the Pune rural police on Tuesday stated that a court in Baramati held Lata Vasantrao Rathod, a resident of Chinchwad, guilty under section 11(1) of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Inspector Rahul Sonawane, who was then attached to the Baramati taluka police station, conducted the investigation in this case. “We conducted an inquiry against Rathod after receiving a complaint of child marriage from a staffer at the Baramati orphange. As the inquiry confirmed that the child marriage had taken place, a first information report was registered against Rathod, who was then superintendent of the orphanage,” said Sonawane, now posted at the Parshivni police station in Nagpur rural.
Advocate Aditya Ransingh worked as the prosecution lawyer in this case. He got assistance from police constable P S Kavitke, the press release said.