New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has upheld a man’s 10-year jail term awarded to him in a minor’s rape case underscoring the seriousness of the crime.
Justice Amit Mahajan agreed with the trial court’s ruling that though the sexual relationship between the 20-year-old man and the 15-year-old survivor appeared consensual, the case would be classified as rape for she was a minor at the time of the incident.
Upholding the 2023 decision of the trial court, Justice Mahajan dismissed the man’s plea challenging his conviction and the 10-year jail term.
“The testimony of the witnesses and the evidence led by the prosecution, inspires confidence and the appellant (man) has been unable to show that the version of the victim that the appellant had sexual intercourse with her in Prahladpur, is false,” the high court’s June 25 verdict read.
The court noted that the man hadn’t disputed the age of the survivor.
On the point of sentence, the high court said the trial court already considered the mitigating circumstances in favour of the appellant — young age and a first time offender — but observed that the “seriousness of the offence” couldn’t be ignored.
The 10-year jail term was noted to be the minimum period prescribed for the offence in law by the court, which said the quantum of sentence was found to be proportional with the crime.
It came on record that initially a kidnapping case was registered at Samaypur Badli Police Station in 2017 on the complaint of the girl’s father who said she left for school but didn’t return home and was missing since then.
Nearly a month later, she was found along with the accused from Ballabgarh in Haryana.
She alleged she had gone to the school where she met the accused man, who was related to her, and he took her to Kalkaji Temple assuring that they would be back by afternoon.
However, she alleged he kept delaying it and then took her to his house where he gave her a spiked cold drink, which made her unconscious and then she woke up nude.
The man was alleged to have threatened to disgrace her family and raped her repeatedly till April 24, 2017, following which she was rescued by the police on April 28, 2017.
The man denied the allegations, maintaining his innocence in the case.
The high court said the minor inconsistencies in the survivor’s statement did not outrightly disregard it wholly.
“The statement still inspires confidence for the purpose of ascertaining that sexual relations was in fact established between the appellant and the victim,” it said. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK
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