The Delhi High Court has upheld life imprisonment awarded to a man for sodomising a four-year-old child, saying his perverse act would have caused physical injuries and left deep emotional scars on the victim.
The court said the 25-year-old convict was himself a father of a small child, but he had no compunction in committing such a heinous crime.
A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Vinod Goel upheld the verdict of a trial court which had awarded life term to the convict, a neighbour of the minor, and dismissed his appeal.
The bench noted that the victim was lured by the man in his room as he offered to feed him chicken-rice and the child innocently accepted it and went to his room which was in the same premises where he and his family were residing.
"By committing such a perverse act, the appellant (man) has not only caused physical injuries to the victim but more than that, the said act would have left deep emotional scars on him likely to stay on in his mind for a long, long time to come.
"This reprehensible animality demonstrated by the appellant would have caused the victim such trauma that he will be wary of reposing trust in an adult or live a joyous and carefree life in his formative years," the bench said.
It said when the spirit is broken, and that too at such a tender age, it is bound to stultify the healthy all-rounded growth of the child.
"It is noteworthy that the appellant was 25 years old on the date of committing the offence. He was married and had a child. But that did not deter him from lusting for the 4-year-old victim. The fact that the appellant was himself father of a small child and yet he had no compunction in committing such a heinous crime, gives strength to our resolve to uphold the judgment," the bench said.
The high court said that considering the nature of the crime and the tender age of the victim, the compensation amount of Rs four lakh awarded to the child by the trial court ought to be enhanced.
It said that a copy of this order be forwarded to the Delhi State Legal Services Authority for appropriate orders.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place in January, 2016, when the child's mother was sitting at terrace and he had gone to eat chicken-rice at the man's room.
After some time, the child came to his mother who saw him bleeding. He informed her about the man's acts after which she raised an alarm and the accused was caught by the neighbours and the matter was reported to the police.
The man had denied the allegations levelled against him and claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case by the child's parents who had borrowed money from him earlier.
The bench also said this is a case where, for once, the police did not lose any time in conducting the investigation and the sequence of the events that stand amply corroborated in all material aspects are borne out from the independent evidence brought on record.
It said when all the evidence is taken together, it endorsed the testimony of the victim that it was the man who had committed carnal intercourse with him and said it has no hesitation in upholding the trial court's judgment.
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