A retired Delhi Police official has been sent to 10 years in jail for repeatedly raping a widow in a police station 15 years ago by a fast track court which said he does not deserve leniency as he committed the crime under the "shield of his uniform".
The court also observed that even after the brutal December 16 gangrape here prompting the government to take some stern measures including making amendments in criminal law, incidents of rape continue unabated.
"One of the reasons may be that sentences handed over to the rapists by judiciary are not deterrent enough. In my opinion, in order to avoid recurrence of the incidents of rape, it is absolutely necessary to ignore insignificant mitigating factors and to impose stringent sentences upon the rape convicts," additional sessions judge Virender Bhat said.
Apart from the jail term, the court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on 70-year-old Brahamjit, who was a sub inspector posted at Jaffarpur Kalan at the time of the incident in 1998, and said, if realised, the amount should be given to the victim.
The court pulled up police for its "shoddy and flimsy" probe in the case to shield their colleague.
"... The victim, a helpless and lonely widow, was pitted against the whole police department. It would have required intense courage for her to continue struggle against the whole police department and fight for justice to her," it said.
The woman, who was 35 at the time of the crime, in her complaint before a magistrate had said that on the night of April 12, 1998, Brahamjit came to her house and illegally took away her son and kept him in custody.
He again came to her house on the morning of April 20 and forcibly put her and her daughter into a jeep but left her daughter when the neighbours protested, she said.
The woman said she was confined at the police station till next morning and was raped by Brahamjit repeatedly. He had also threatened to kill her if she disclosed the incident to anyone.
