New Delhi:
A man, who was convicted for raping his 14-year-old neighbour after tying her with a cloth, has been sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by a Delhi court.
Additional Sessions Judge M C Gupta held 35-year-old Amit Kumar guilty of raping and criminally intimidating the minor girl, while relying on the testimony of the victim and her parents.
"I am of the considered opinion that as far as the involvement of Amit Kumar in the commission of the offences under sections 376/506 (rape and criminal intimidation) of the IPC is concerned, the same is sufficiently established by the cogent and reliable evidence," the judge said.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on Kumar, a resident of Rohini.
"The testimonies are found to be natural, clear, reliable, inspiring confidence and having a ring of truth... there is nothing in their statements to suggest that they had any animus against the accused to falsely implicate him in the case," the court said.
According to the prosecution, on August 2, 2011, when the girl was alone at her residence in the afternoon, her neighbour Kumar entered her house and raped her.
The girl had told the police that Kumar forcefully entered her house in a drunken state and slapped and raped her after tying her up with a cloth. He had also blind-folded her.
She had alleged that that Kumar also called three more persons, who took turns to rape her, but they could not be arrested as she failed to identify them.
The girl's father was admitted to a hospital at that time and her mother was with him when the offence took place.
The girl had told police that she told Kumar's wife about the incident but she refused to believe her and instead beat her up.
The minor told her mother about the incident the next day after which an FIR was lodged and Kumar was arrested.
Kumar, who worked as a driver, pleaded not guilty and said he was falsely implicated.
He sought leniency in sentencing on the ground that he has to take care of his aged parents, pregnant wife and two minor daughters as he was the sole bread earner of the family.
The court rejected the contention that Kumar was falsely implicated, saying, "Normally a woman would not falsely implicate a man for the offence of rape at the cost of her character.
"In Indian society, it is very unusual that a lady with a view to implicate a person would go to the extent of stating that she was raped."
The court also rejected the claim of the defence counsel that there was a delay in lodging the FIR on the part of the minor.
"The sight cannot be lost of the fact that Indian women have a tendency to conceal the offence of sexual assault because it involves their own as well as the prestige of their family. Only in few cases, the victim or the family members have the courage to go to the police station and lodge a case," it said.