The girl was kidnapped and raped by a rickshaw-puller in Delhi. (Representational)
The Delhi High Court has convicted a man for kidnapping and raping a girl and then endangering her life by leaving the child in a deserted place after committing the "horrendous" crime. Justice S P Garg gave 10 years jail term to the convict while modifying the trial court's decision to acquit the man of the charge of rape.
The court also came down heavily on the trial court for not believing that the child was raped merely because the then four-year-old girl did not disclose that she had been sexually assaulted.
"This approach is disgusting. The victim aged around 4-5 years suffering from mental trauma was not expected to give the details of the commission of rape to the examining doctor positively. She was not expected to understand what was the meaning of 'rape'," the court said.
"No valid reasons were given by the trial court to disbelieve the victim's statement about commission of rape. It was not discussed as to how else the victim had sustained injuries on her private part," the high court said.
It also noted that the trial court gave no justifiable reason to disbelieve the aspect of rape and that the findings exonerating the man of the charge of rape was "perverse" and "cannot be sustained".
The order came on the police's appeal against the man's acquittal for the offence of rape.
While awarding the sentence, the high court said, "Crime committed by the respondent is horrendous."
It directed the convict to surrender before the trial court on April 17 to serve out his sentence.
The high court said the period of sentence already undergone in custody in the case shall be counted and adjusted against the total jail term.
According to the prosecution, the incident occurred on November 14, 2009 when the girl was taken away by the convict on his rickshaw on the excuse of buying her sweets. Her parents lodged a complaint after the convict failed to bring her back. The police had found the child lying unconscious near a railway track in East Delhi.