A Delhi court has sentenced a man to 10-year imprisonment for raping a minor girl, besides handing the same jail term to the victim's maternal aunt for abetting the crime.
Additional Session Judge M C Gupta also imposed a fine of Rs 12,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively on Delhi-resident Manoj Kumar and the victim's maternal aunt.
The judge dismissed their contentions that they were falsely implicated, saying the girl's testimony regarding the incident was "trustworthy".
"...Testimony of prosecutrix (girl) on careful perusal and analysis is found to be natural, clear, cogent, convincing, trustworthy and inspiring confidence. There is nothing in her statement to suggest that she had any animus against accused Manoj Kumar and the woman to falsely implicate them in the case," the judge said.
According to the police, the girl and her mother lodged a complaint on April 30, 2009 in which the victim alleged that when she was washing clothes outside her house, her neighbour Manoj told her that her maternal aunt was calling her.
The victim went to her aunt's house where Manoj raped her and then threatened her saying he would kill her family members if she disclosed this to anyone, the police said, adding that the crime took place on March 5.
After Manoj left the house, the maternal aunt told the girl to forget the incident.
Based on the victim's statement, an FIR was lodged following which sleuths arrested Manoj on May 8, and later apprehended the maternal aunt in July.
During the trial, the lawyer of the two accused argued that the girl had falsely implicated his clients after she became pregnant from an affair with someone else.
The court dismissed the contention saying that Manoj had raped the girl and the maternal aunt had helped him in abetting the crime.
"...Since the accused (maternal aunt) had abetted Manoj to commit the offence of rape upon the prosecutrix and it was committed in consequence of the abetment as discussed herein above and she was present when the said offence was committed in consequence of abetment, accused shall be deemed to have committed the offence," the judge said.
