Victims made to feel guilty in sexual assault cases:court

It is natural for minor victims of sexual assaults not to confide in their parents as instead of the offender, they are more often made to feel guilty, a Delhi court has said while convicting a music teacher for repeatedly molesting his 13-year-old student.
The court rejected the contention of the 29-year-old teacher Kranti Kiran that the girl did not disclose the incidents to anyone for several months. It said the girl's testimony was "un-rebutted and consistent during cross-examination."
"In a country like India, children specially girls are neither expected to be nor taught to be frank about sexual issues and more often then not children who are victims of such offences are made to feel guilty about the offence done against them.

"Thus it is natural that the victim who was threatened by accused must be either too shy or too scared to reveal such activities to parents or friends," Metropolitan Magistrate Richa Parihar said.
The court's observations came as it convicted the music and dance teacher who repeatedly outraged the modesty of his student and threatened to kill her.
The court also observed that being a dance teacher of the girl, he was in capacity of manipulating her.

"At the time of commission of offence, the girl was 13- year-old with impressionable mind whereas accused was mature and adult man. Thus being dance teacher of complainant,accused was in capacity of manipulating her mind," it said.

According to prosecution, in 2004, the victim, who was studying in Class VIII at that time, had joined the music and dance classes along with her younger brother during her summer vacation.
Kiran used to call her to attend extra classes of dance where he molested and threatened to kill her if she disclosed about it to anyone.
Later, she informed her mother and a complaint was lodged against him.