HIV +ve rapist jailed for 10 yrs
A 22-year-old HIV positive man who had raped her minor step-daughter has been jailed for ten years by a city court.
A 22-year-old HIV positive man who had raped her minor step-daughter has been jailed for ten years by a city court.
"Keeping in view the fact that he is suffering from HIV infection, he is sentenced to ten years simple imprisonment," Additional Sessions judge Nisha Saxena said.
The prosecution case was that the convict, a rickshaw puller, had married the victim's mother, who was older than him, in 2008.
On the night of May 26, 2009, he called the victim, who used to sleep on the terrace of the house, to his room, while his wife was away in his native village in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
The convict forced himself upon the victim and slapped her a number of times when she resisted. As she tried to raise an alarm, he thrust a piece of cloth in her mouth and raped her. He also threatened the girl not to disclose the incident to anyone.
Two days later when victim's mother came back home, she narrated the incident to her who then took her to the police station to lodge a complaint.
The convict was arrested on the intervening night of June 4-5, 2009.
During his stay in the jail as an undertrial, he used to complain of various health problems. Once on being taken for a medical check-up on court's order, he was found to be HIV positive.
The court held the man guilty of rape on testimonies of the victim and her mother as well as on the basis of the medical report which proved that the girl had been raped.
Additional public prosecutor Atul Srivastava had sought life imprisonment for the convict submitting that his crime was of a serious nature as a father is bound to protect the daughter.
The defence counsel pleaded to the court to take a lenient view keeping in mind that he was a HIV positive and was suffering from various other ailments. He also told the court that he was the sole earning member of his family as his father was a patient of TB and he had two minor brothers and sisters to look after.