Additional Session Judge Madhu Jain convicted Rajender Kumar for molesting his daughter but absolved him of the charge of rape against him, levelled by his wife, saying that it would be "unsafe to rely solely on the testimony of the mother."
"In view of the testimony of the daughter... The accused is held guilty and convicted for the offence under section 354 (assault with intent to outrage modesty of woman) of the IPC," the court said.
The court, in its order, took note of the fact that the girl had not stated anything about the rape alleged to have been committed by her father.
"It is highly unsafe to rely on the sole testimony of the mother without its corroboration by any independent witness and to convict the accused under section 376 (rape) of the IPC," it said.
"Even if the child is six years of age, still such type of incident, if it happens with a child, cannot be forgotten by her," it added.
The court ruling came on a case registered on September 13, 2010 on complaint of the minor girl's mother that her husband had raped their daughter when she had gone out for work.
During the trial, Kumar had refuted the allegations, saying that his wife had implicated him in a false case out of suspicion.
