New Delhi:
A man found guilty of repeatedly raping his 13-year-old step daughter and making her pregnant has been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment by a Delhi court which said his DNA sample matched with the aborted foetus.
Additional Sessions Judge Rajneesh Kumar Gupta held the 33-year-old Bihar native guilty of raping the girl, threatening to kill her and wrongfully confining her.
The court said there was nothing to disbelieve the girl's testimony. The DNA result showed that the profile from the foetus of the girl matched with the DNA sample of the man which proved that he had established physical relations with the minor due to which she became pregnant, it said.
"Keeping in view the testimony of the victim which is reliable and inspires confidence and is also corroborated by her statement (recorded by the police) and by the DNA result, I am of the opinion that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused that on August 16, 2011 at Uttam Nagar in Delhi, he wrongfully confined the girl and threatened her with threat to her life and committed rape on the girl and also thereafter," the judge said.
The court refused to take any lenient view towards him considering the "seriousness" of the offence and the facts of the case. It imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on him.
According to the prosecution, on August 16, 2011, when the girl returned home from school and went to her room to change clothes, the man entered the room and raped her.
When she resisted and started screaming, he gagged her mouth and threatened to kill her, if she disclosed the act to anyone, it said.
The man continued to rape her daily for the next three-four months due to which she became pregnant. She then disclosed the incident to her maternal grandmother who informed the girl's mother about it.
The girl's mother lodged a complaint against her husband and after the minor's medical examination, the pregnancy was terminated.
During the trial, the man claimed innocence saying the girl's mother had implicated him in a false case to extort money from him.
At the time of sentencing, the convict pleaded for mercy submitting that he was in judicial custody since December 2011 and has no past criminal record.