Man sentenced to life for raping 5-year-old daughter

MUMBAI: A special POCSO court in Dindoshi recently sentenced a 37-year-old man, a resident of Andheri, to life imprisonment for raping his 5-year-old daughter at their house, in 2018

MUMBAI: A special POCSO court in Dindoshi recently sentenced a 37-year-old man, a resident of Andheri, to life imprisonment for raping his 5-year-old daughter at their house, in 2018.

Man sentenced to life for raping 5-year-old daughter

The complaint was lodged by the girl’s mother - a constable in the police department - after her daughter informed her about pain in her private parts on December 19, 2018, when her father was out for work.

Upon inquiry, the girl told her mother that her father sexually harassed her when her mother was not at home. The child added that her father used to beat and threaten her not to tell anyone about it. He used to also beat her up if she refused to do what her father wanted.

The mother subsequently lodged a report at the Powai police station and the accused was booked under sections 376 AB (punishment for rape on woman under 12 years of age), 376 (2) (aggravated rape) of the Indian Penal Code and under various section of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012.

When he was put to trial, his lawyers argued that the mother of the girl concocted a fake story to get rid of her husband, using her colleagues in the police department, since she was unhappy over his lack of regular income and proper employment.

The prosecution submitted that there was no evidence to support that the mother filed a fake complaint against the accused. The court, too, observed that there was no believable evidence on record to show that the mother used her daughter to concoct a fake case under POCSO Act to get out of the marriage. The court also stated that it was an arranged marriage, and the mother already knew about the income of the accused before agreeing to marry him.

Special judge Sameer Jahan Ansari observed that the incident was extremely shocking “as the victim girl’s own father had subjected her to rape and carnal intercourse against the order of nature, when she was a child as small as five years old and some months.”

Stating that his acts were unpardonable, the court held that he had destroyed the sanctity of a father-daughter relationship. It said that the mother had left her daughter in the care of her husband on account of the trust which she had in him, that he would take proper care of their daughter, which was shattered by the acts of the accused. While sentencing, the court considered the fact that the accused committed the offences not once but repeatedly, even though he had a wife for establishing conjugal relations with. It also considered that the girl was scarred for life and will need great care and counselling to overcome the trauma that she faced.