Delhi man gets life for raping, impregnating his teen daughter

A Delhi court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for raping and impregnating his 13-year-old daughter, noting that he deserved no leniency for a crime that created “two victims”.

Ordering that Rs 13 lakh be paid as compensation, additional sessions judge Rakesh Pandit said, “The accused is the father of the victim... and has taken advantage of the tender age of the child who could not protect herself... and the heinous crime made her pregnant, resulting in the birth of a child. Now there are two victims.”

Of 37,413 rape cases registered in 2014 in India, 674 involved family members, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data. Delhi topped the list with 140 cases where the offenders were grandfathers, fathers, brothers or sons. Delhi Police records reveal girls between seven and 12 are the most vulnerable to such crimes.

Of the compensation amount, the court ordered that Rs 12 lakh be kept in a fixed deposit account to be given to the infant child on turning a major.

Calling the judgment “well-intentioned but not justice”, advocate Shilpi Jain, who has represented many rape victims, said, “The child will not reach majority for another 17 years while her mother (now 14) will be a major in another four. She has undergone grave trauma of the kind we cannot imagine; she has been raped by her own father. She should be awarded the entire compensation.”

The 40-year-old man, a south Delhi resident, will serve two consecutive life sentences under the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2013. He was also awarded five and seven years each for outraging the modesty of a woman and criminal intimidation — sentences that will run at the same time.