E-Paper
'No leniency could be shown in Imrana's case'
The judge who convicted Imrana's father-in-law said if a woman is not safe in her house she cannot be safe anywhere.
The court in Muzaffarnagar that convicted Imrana's father-in-law for raping her has said that no leniency could be shown as the guilty man was almost like a father to the victim.
District and Sessions Judge RD Nimesh, who on Thursday gave Ali Mohammed a 10-year prison term for the crime, rejected his counsel's plea for leniency by saying if a woman was not safe in her marital home, she could not feel safe anywhere.
The judge, however, said the time spent in judicial custody by Mohammed since his arrest on June 13, 2005, would be reduced from his prison term. Mohammed, who raped Imrana on June 6 last year, has spent over 16 months in prison.
Mohammed's counsel Subash Arora had sought leniency for him, saying he was 70 years old and poor. But Nimesh said in his judgement that Mohammed had raped Imrana at home while her husband Nur Ilahi was at work in a brick kiln.
"If a woman is not safe at the house of her father-in- law, she cannot be safe at any other place," the judge said. A father-in-law is like the father of a married woman and no leniency could be shown in this case, he said.
The judge also fined Mohammed Rs 10,000 for the rape, and said Rs 8,000 from this should be given as compensation to Imrana. On a separate charge of criminal intimidation, Mohammed was sentenced to three years in prison and fined Rs 3,000.
