Phulbani: The additional district and sessions judge in Kandhamal on Thursday sentenced a 28-year-old tribal man to 15 years' rigorous imprisonment after convicting him for rape of a 14-year-old girl three years ago.

The girl was raped by the convict, Punarjibita Digal, on April 30, 2015, near her house in Phiringia police station limits.

The accused had tied both her hands and gagged her with cotton clothes and raped her. The incident had triggered public outrage.

Pronouncing the verdict on the basis of circumstantial and medical evidence, the additional district and sessions judge Sushanta Patel convicted Digal to 15 years' imprisonment under sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimation) of Indian Penal Code and section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

"Medical examination had revealed that the victim's private parts had been mutilated. The victim and 18 witnesses had deposed in the case in the court. After relying on the evidences of the girl and others apart from the medical report, the court held him guilty of committing the offence," said special public prosecutor Ashim Praharaj.

Man gets life

A local court in Bhadrak has sentenced a man for killing his wife life sentence along with Rs 50,000 fine and six more months in default. Kailash Jena of Sribantapur village in the Banta police station jurisdictions had set his wife, Sanjukta, on fire on April 22, 2012.