Court sends youth to 7-year jail for raping woman

NEW DELHI: A youth has been sent to seven years in jail for raping and threatening a woman, with a Delhi court terming it a “vile and reprehensible” act that brought

NEW DELHI: A youth has been sent to seven years in jail for raping and threatening a woman, with a Delhi court terming it a “vile and reprehensible” act that brought the feeling of humiliation, disgust, trauma and lifelong scar to the victim.

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Additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain handed down the jail term to 22-year-old Haseeb, a UP native, for raping the woman, a domestic help in the house where he worked as a tailor, saying the convict has “committed the vile act of rape upon the prosecutrix ....

“(It) is universally considered to be among the most morally and physically, reprehensible crime in society and assault on the body, mind, privacy of the victim. Her dignity is shredded. The social stigma attached to this crime is such that many a times, a crime would go unreported by the victim.”

The court, which directed Delhi Legal Service Authority (south district) to decide the appropriate compensation to be awarded to the victim, also said, “courts must be responsive to the plight of victim of sexual assault. Society’s belief and value systems need to be kept uppermost in mind as rape is the worst form of woman’s oppression.”

“Forcible sexual assault brings in humiliation, feeling of disgust, tremendous embarrassment, sense of shame, trauma and lifelong emotional scar to a victim,” it said.

According to the police on October 3, 2015, Haseeb raped the woman when she was alone in the house where she worked as a domestic help.