Patna, June 15: A special court here on Thursday awarded 10 years' imprisonment to two senior citizens under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act 2012.

The special court, headed by Sarwajeet, found Lalu Yadav and his friend, Nagendra Choudhary, both residents of Digha in Patna, guilty under relevant sections of the Pocso Act and awarded 10-year imprisonment to both.

Special public prosecutor Suresh Chandra Prasad said the court also imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on each of the two convicts. Both, who were in their late-seventies, were later sent to Beur Central Jail.

Lalu and Nagendra were accused of raping a 14-year-old girl on December 20, 2014.

The victim's mother, a vegetable-seller, had lodged an FIR with the Digha police station against the accused, who were her neighbours.

The girl, according to the FIR, was found bleeding profusely in her house when her mother returned from the local market on the day of the incident.

She was admitted to a local government hospital for treatment.

The doctor, who examined the girl, confirmed that the victim had been raped and there were evidences of penetration. The doctor also deposed before the trial court and corroborated the charges levelled against the accused.

The special public prosecutor said six prosecution witnesses, including the victim's mother, were cross-examined. All the witnesses corroborated their statements, which finally led to the conviction of the offenders, he told The Telegraph.

Sources in the police headquarters said the conviction rate in the cases registered under the Pocso Act was a little over 3 per cent in Bihar ever since the Act came into force in 2012.

Sharing official statistics, a senior police officer said only 38 persons were held guilty against 2,716 cases lodged with different police stations of the state bet-ween November 2012 and December 2016.

Till December last year, the police submitted chargesheets in over 2,000 cases.

Final forms were submitted in respective courts in only 92 cases. Altogether 1,757 cases were still pending in different courts, the police officer revealed.

Recently, a senior Congress leader, Brajesh Pandey, had to resign from the post of the party's state vice-president after his name figured in a sexual harassment case.

Brajesh, a resident of East Champaran district, is absconding in the case the daughter of a Dalit former minister lodged with the SC/ST police station in Patna.

The criminal investigation department is monitoring the high-profile case involving a known automobile dealer, Nikhil Priyadarshi.