E-Paper
46-year-old gets life imprisonment for raping minor daughter
A man has been sentenced to life in prison by a court in Pune for repeatedly sexually assaulting his biological daughter, till 2018 when he was arrested
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PUNE A man has been sentenced to life in prison by a court in Pune for repeatedly sexually assaulting his biological daughter, till 2018 when he was arrested. The court also levied a fine of ₹50,000; failure of payment will invite five years of additional punishment.
The convicted man was identified as a 46-year-old native of Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh. The survivor was 13 years of age in 2018, when she reported the crime to the police.
The conviction was awarded by District Judge KK Jhagirdar with public prosecutor Arundhati Bramhe and investigating officer Ashwini Patil, with police staff havaldars Sachin Shinde and Vishal Madne.
“After considering the submissions of both parties, no doubt, the accused being the father of the victim, it is his duty to protect her in all difficulties and he has to protect the girl from the bad elements from society and he has to do all the things for the development and benefits of his daughter, but he has committed a heinous crime of rape upon his own daughter, not only repeatedly, but continuously for the period of three years, and when the torture of the sexual harassment of accused became unbearable to the victim, she herself rushed to the police station and lodged the complaint”, read one of the concluding remarks of the district judge.
The district legal service authority (DLSA), Pune, was directed to provide compensation to the victim under the Victim Compensation Scheme framed by the state government of Maharashtra, known as the Manodhairya Scheme.
The girl lost her mother in 2014 after which the father moved her and her elder brother to Pune from UP. He started working as a watchman in a building.
The mother of the child had passed away 7-8 years before the crime was committed, according to the court order. Therefore, the brother of the survivor and the survivor are solely dependent on the accused for livelihood.
The man was a habitual drinker and often came home drunk before abusing the children physically and verbally. It was a few years after the death of the survivor’s mother that he starting molesting and then abusing her.
“He repeated assaulted her right until the time when the FIR was registered. It started when she was barely 10 years of age. He used to threaten to harm her brother if she did not comply. We examined nine witnesses including the complainant, the doctor who examined her, and the investigating officer,” said PP Bramhe.
The defence lawyer, provided by the DLSA, claimed that the girl has made up the case because she was caught stealing from houses in the building where her father worked. The lawyer claimed that the girl levelled false allegation to seek revenge after her father reprimanded her for theft.
However, the doctor’s examination proved otherwise. The girl had come to the police station in February 2018 after the man had assaulted her for five days in a row. She narrated the incident to the police, but was scared and crying. The police called for a social worker who helped her lodge a complaint.
The conviction was awarded for crimes under Sections 376 (2)(n)(I), 376(3), and 506 of Indian Penal Code and Section 3 punishable under section 4, 5(l)(n) punishable under section 6 of Protection of children from sexual offence (Pocso) Act, 2012 registered at Bharati Vidyapeeth police station.
