High court said perusal of the trial court's discharge order showed reasoning is "completely perverse" .
A blind man, accused of sexually assaulting his daughter repeatedly since she was six years old, is to be tried for the offences of rape and molestation, the Delhi High Court has directed.
It set aside a trial court order discharging the man in the case and sent back the matter to the lower court to frame appropriate charges against him.
"The reasoning given by the trial court, that the allegations are general in nature without mentioning specific dates and are not substantiated as she had not called the police on 100 number or informed any of the close relatives, is clearly not sustainable," Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said.
The high court said perusal of the trial court's discharge order showed that the reasoning is "completely perverse" and "trial court does not seem to be alive to realities".
According to the FIR, the accused was blind and living separately from his wife and the victim, who was their daughter, was residing with him.
The girl, who was born in 1998, in her statement had submitted that she has no memory as to when the sexual assaults started. She had stated that there were several instances from 2004-2005 till 2011 when he had allegedly sexually assaulted her.
The high court allowed the plea of police challenging the discharge order and said it was satisfied that the allegations raise grave suspicion against the man having committed rape and molestation.
"The relation between the prosecutrix and the accused is that of daughter and father and the allegations of sexual assault go back to several years. The prosecutrix in her complaint to the police and her 164 CrPC statement has stated that she does not even recollect when the sexual assault started.
"Her narration of incidents go back to a period when she was only 6 years of age and the sexual assault continued till she was 13-14 years of age. Complaint is made to the police when she attained the age of 18 years," it noted.
It said a child who was subjected to sexual abuse and assault from a tender age of 6 and which assault continued till she turned 14, would not even be aware that she was being abused or any offence was happening.
The girl, in her statement, had stated that she was not aware of the abuse and became aware only when she grew up.
She had said in the statement that due to lack of sex education, she began to think that she would become pregnant and went through a lot of stress and mental trauma.
"In 2011, I went to a different hostel and started getting sex education and came to know that what happened with me was rape and sexual assault," she had said.
The high court said that merely because there was delay in lodging a complaint would be no ground for the court to discharge an accused, especially when there was other evidence to corroborate the allegations. Medical evidence also supports the allegations.
"Trial court has erred in not appreciating that the accused was the father of the prosecutrix and was in a dominating position and keeping in the view the relationship, it would not be abnormal for the prosecutrix not to make a complaint against her own father. The reasoning given by the trial court is completely perverse and contrary to record," it said.
It listed the matter before the trial court for appropriate orders on April 15 and also clarified that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the matter.