Overview
- The II Additional District and Sessions Court handed 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment to four men convicted in the Thota Bengre gang rape, with sentences pronounced at the end of July 2026.
- A Fast Track Special Court gave 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment to 20‑year‑old Sonu Maclin Noronha for repeatedly sexually assaulting and digitally blackmailing a minor, convicting him under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the POCSO Act and the IT Act.
- Prosecutors said the Noronha case involved repeated assaults between September 2024 and June 2025, screenshots taken during a video call while the girl was bathing, and threats to circulate images and kill her family if she resisted.
- The Thota Bengre trial stemmed from a November 17–18, 2018 attack in which four adults and three juveniles assaulted two people and gang‑raped a woman; the adults were convicted under IPC sections including 376(D) and provisions of the SC/ST Act.
- Police investigators and special public prosecutors built the charge sheets using witness testimony and digital evidence, the court ordered fines that include Rs 60,000 in compensation from the District Legal Services Authority, and juveniles from the 2018 case were dealt with separately by the Juvenile Justice Board.