A 48-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for raping a minor nine years ago by a Delhi court which relied solely on the testimony of the victim.
Additional Sessions Judge Gulshan Kumar gave the jail term and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the south Delhi resident Sajjan Singh for raping the six-year-old girl, who was his neighbour, after calling her to his room on the pretext of giving chocolates in 2004.
The court turned down the argument of Singh's counsel that the accused could not be convicted merely because the girl had said that she was raped by him.
"It is a well-settled principle of law that conviction can be sustained on the sole testimony of the prosecutrix if it inspires confidence.
"A plethora of decisions by the Supreme Court would show that once the statement of prosecutrix inspires confidence and is accepted by the court and such conviction can be based only on the solitary evidence of the victim, no corroboration would be required unless there are compelling reasons which necessitates the courts for corroboration of her statement," the judge said.
The court relied on the child's testimony, recorded last year, in which she had given the details about the incident.
The court observed that rape is the most-hated crime as it is not only against a woman but against the whole society.
"Rape is not a crime against person of a woman, it is a crime against the entire society. It destroys the entire psychology of a woman and pushes her into deep emotional crisis," it said.
According to the prosecution, Singh had called the minor, who was living in the same building, and her brother to his room in June 2004. He gave money to her brother and sent him to the market to buy toffees and, thereafter, closed the room and raped the girl.
