A man convicted of raping his 14-year-old lover in 2000 has been spared harsh punishment by a Delhi court which said she was in love with him and had willingly accompanied him.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat sentenced convict Surender Paswan to eight months jail, the period of detention he has already undergone during the trial, saying physical relations between them were "consensual" and also the incident occurred 14 years back when the convict was just 20 years old.
"He (Surender) is now already married having five minor children, four of whom are daughters. He is the only source of livelihood for them and there is nobody to look after the minor children in his absence....
"Keeping in view... Peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, I am of the opinion that the convict does not deserve any harsh sentence and he deserves to be given the benefit of the proviso attached to sub section 1 of section 376 IPC as it stood before the amendment of the year 2013. I feel that the demands of justice would be met, if the convict is sentenced to the term of imprisonment already undergone," the judge said while imposing a cost of Rs 5,000 on the convict.
Surender was facing trial in the case after the girl in her complaint to the police had alleged that she was raped on several occasions by him at his village in Bihar when she accompanied him in December 2000 after her parents had scolded her for some reason.
"She did not feel comfortable in that house and insisted that the accused take her back home. However, the accused threatened her to keep quiet, otherwise, she would be killed. The sccused kept her there for about one week and then took her to the house of his brother where she was kept confined inside the house," the girl had told the police, adding that she was raped several times there.
