A 40-year-old man and his wife, convicted in a kidnapping and rape case involving a minor, have been sentenced to imprisonment for up to 10 years by a Delhi court which voiced concern over the rising cases of child rape, saying "childhood across the nation is at risk".
Observing that the convicts do not deserve any leniency as they had committed a "horrific" crime, Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Garg sentenced Zaheer Alam to 10 year in jail and his wife Reshma to 7 years imprisonment for kidnapping the 13-year-old girl and taking her out of Delhi where she was repeatedly raped by the man for over ten days.
"The victim in this case is just 13-years-old and she was subjected to horrific and sadistic sexual assault repeatedly.
"A recent report by Asian Centre for Women Rights says that incidents of child rape have multiplied in the last decade. The recent horrific incidents of rape have created a furore in the society.
"It appears across the nation the childhood is at risk. The children of this age are vulnerable and are easy prey to such sexual assaults," the judge observed.
The court held Zaheer guilty under the Indian Penal Code for the offences of kidnapping with an intent to confine a person and rape. It convicted Reshma for the offences of kidnapping with an intent to confine a person and abetment of rape.
According to the prosecution, the girl was kidnapped in August 2011 when she left her home for going to school in the morning. When she did not return home, the girl's father had lodged a missing complaint and had suspected that she was kidnapped by Zaheer and his wife, who stayed in the same locality in east-Delhi.
The police obtained Zaheer's mobile number and rescued the girl after over ten days from Ludhiana, where she was held hostage, it said.
The girl had told the police that the couple forced her to come with them at knife-point and took her to a rented room in Ludhiana where she was repeatedly raped by Zaheer.
The police traced Zaheer's location through his mobile number and arrested him and his wife nearly two weeks later.
During the trial, the couple claimed that they were falsely implicated by the girl's father because they had asked him to return the money they had lent him.
The couple had also alleged that the girl was raped by her father and when they tried to talk to him about it, he had threatened to lodge a false complaint against them.
The court, however, rejected all contentions of the couple.
