Man gets 10 years’ jail for raping physically handicapped woman

A fast-track court here sentenced a 24-year-old man to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment on Saturday for raping a physically challenged woman at a village near Kherki Daula. HT reports.

A fast-track court here sentenced a 24-year-old man to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment on Saturday for raping a physically challenged woman at a village near Kherki Daula.

The court of the additional district and sessions judge also slapped a fine of Rs 31,000 on the convict. The accused, Devender Singh, was convicted of raping a 33-year-old woman and later threatening to kill her and cause harm to her family in case she approached the police.

Speaking about the speedy trial, which took just five months, the victim’s counsel, Gaurav Vashisht, said the verdict was possibly one of the fastest to be delivered in the state.

“Such verdicts awarding the maximum sentence within a short period of time are welcome as they reinstate the victims’ faith in the legal framework,” said Vashisht. While the victim’s family was happy with the verdict, the victim said she wanted death sentence for the accused in the case.

“I welcome the verdict and am happy with the police and the legal system which has fast-tracked solving the case. But I feel that death penalty would be the only deterrent to such crimes,” she said.

She also said that the accused had repeatedly harassed her till his conviction, including threatening her that he would repeat the offence if she told the police about the incident. She said that the accused had also warned her that he would physically assault her 10-year-old daughter.

The victim’s family attributed the speedy justice to KD Singh Foundation, an NGO which provided legal help in the case. “The NGO provided financial aid for legal help and also assisted us through the entire trial. The speedy trial was possible because of them,” said the victim’s husband Satbir Singh, who works as a farmer in the village.