A 'tantrik' has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by a Delhi court for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old minor daughter, relying solely on her testimony.
Additional Sessions Judge T R Naval awarded the jail term to the Ashok Nagar resident for raping his minor daughter, observing that the strained relations between the parents may be a reason for sexual assault on the girl by her father.
"It is held that the prosecution has proved its case against the accused beyond any reasonable suspicion or shadow of doubt that he committed sexual intercourse with the victim, aged about 14-15 years forcibly against her will and without her consent. Therefore, accused is held guilty and convicted for the commission of offence of rape punishable under section 376 (rape) of the IPC," the court said and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the man.
The court also rejected the man's plea that there was a delay in lodging the FIR by his daughter.
"It is an admitted fact that present case is a case by a daughter against a father where mother has strained relations with her father and due to that her mother was living most of the time separately from the girl and the accused.
"The girl was not having protection of any other person. In such circumstances, it is not expected from a daughter aged about 14-15 years to revolt against her father and immediately rush to police to lodge the report against her father," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, the girl had approached the police for lodging a complaint against her father who had raped her on the night of May 11, 2011 and several times before that also. She said her parents were having strained relations and due to this, most of the time her mother used to live separately and in her absence, he used to rape her.
The girl had said her father had slapped and threatened to kill her if she tried to raise an alarm. She said her father was a 'tantrik' and he used his power to have control over her.
