A 30-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment by a special POCSO court in Thane for sexually assaulting a minor girl between 2021 and 2022.The girl sold sprouts next to the man's tea stall in Majiwada. (PTI/ Representative)Dhaneshwar alias Dhuleshwar Pujiyalal Kalasuva was found guilty of repeatedly raping the minor and convicted under the Indian Penal Code and on charges of aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the POCSO Act.The court rejected his defence that the relationship was a consensual “love affair” and said that a minor's consent had no legal validity under the law, as per PTI.The caseThe Kapurbawadi police registered an FIR in July 2022, according to the prosecution. The girl, who had a food stall close to Kalasuva's tea stall in Majiwada, allegedly told her mother that she was in a relationship with him. The prosecution alleged that Kalasuva had sexual relations with her for almost a year.The prosecution said the girl and the accused, then 26, later travelled to his native village in Rajasthan. After she returned, a medical examination found that she was 20 weeks pregnant.The pregnancy was reportedly aborted at Thane Civil Hospital. DNA profiling confirmed that the accused was the biological father of the foetus, PTI reported.What the court saidThe court, though, acquitted Kalasuva of a kidnapping charge. It said the girl went with him to his native village in Rajasthan on her own to marry him and stay away from her family. The court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that Kalasuva had taken her away from the lawful custody of her parents.During the trial, the prosecution examined seven witnesses.Rejecting the defence's argument that the relationship was a consensual, the court said that the law provides absolute protection to children below 18 years of age."Section 375 of IPC shows that when the girl is below 18 years of age, even if sexual intercourse is with her consent, it would amount to rape. Similarly, under the POCSO Act, when the victim is below 18 years, her consent for sexual intercourse is immaterial. Once it is established that the victim was a child, the consent of the victim is immaterial," the court observed, as per PTI.Defence counsel G P Gholap sought the minimum sentence, saying that the relationship was consensual and cited the accused's poor financial condition.