New Delhi:
They may have been love birds and tattooed their names on each others body but a court has sentenced the youth to five years in jail on charges of kidnapping and raping the girl.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sanjay Sharma held 21-year-old youth Vakul Kapoor, who was 19 at the time of committing the offence, guilty of rape and kidnapping, despite conceding that the girl and the boy were having "deep-rooted intimacy" and the girl was also a "consenting party" in the act.
The court, however, said, "it is high time that the young generation should learn to respect and obey the laws which are and have been made for the benefit of one and all and inculcate sense of discipline in the person."
While also imposing a fine of Rs 35,000 on the youth, the judge conceded that the crime committed by Vakul was "not out of any lust or criminal design" but "in exuberance of the youth age and without the understanding of law, with an undeveloped set of mind."
Vakul was arrested on a complaint lodged on June 17, 2009, at Geeta Colony police station by the 14-year-old girl's father, alleging his daughter had gone missing since June 15, 2009, and Vakul had abducted her. The girl had returned home the same evening when Vakul was arrested.