Bhubaneswar/Balasore: A special Pocso (Protection Of Children against Sexual Offences) court in Balasore on Thursday awarded life term to a person accused of raping and killing a minor girl.

The court also handed the convict, Pradeep Kumar Acharya, 24, a resident of Chaulachuda village in Sadar police station limits of Balasore, a penalty of Rs 35,000.

Acharya had an affair with a 15-year-old girl, a resident of Raghunathpalli in Rourkela. The accused had brought the girl, a first-year Plus Two arts student, to Balasore and raped her on the assurance of marrying her.

But when the girl insisted on marriage, he strangulated her and later hanged her from a tree to make the murder look like suicide. The incident took place on December 10, 2014. Post-mortem revealed that it was not a case of suicide and that the girl had been subjected to sexual torture.

Consequently, the police started a serious of investigations and nabbed the accused.

During interrogation the accused had confessed to the crime.

Pocso court special public prosecutor Pranab Panda said: "The court cross examined 26 witnesses and 23 documents were exhibited. The sentence was pronounced after going through evidences. The DNA profile test was carried out in this case. It was found that the body, which had foetus in its womb, matched with the DNA of the accused."