A man has been sent to 15 years in jail for raping his teenaged niece, with a Delhi court observing that his offence was of highest gravity as the "protector" acted like a "predator on prowl".
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhatt handed down the jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 75,000 on the victim's uncle, a native of Aligarh, saying "it would be ridiculous and outrageous to think that a man would get sexual arousal upon seeing his own minor niece alone".
"The convict has committed the offence of highest gravity. He was the real uncle of the victim who looked up to him as her protector but the convict acted like a predator on prowl, looking for an opportunity to satiate his sexual thirst upon his own minor niece.
Also Read
"He was a fatherly figure for the victim. By sexually assaulting her twice, he betrayed the trust reposed upon him by the victim as well her parents. He even did not care for the emotions of the victim who was in a disturbed state of mind because of the hospitalisation of her father," the judge said.
The court also observed that the man posed a "great threat to the society at large and the womenfolk in society cannot feel safe if the convict is let out with a lenient sentence.
"The spine-chilling narration of the incidents given by the victim indicates that the convict is a morally depraved person and has the tendency of recidivism," it observed.
According to the prosecution, the girl was raped by her uncle in September 2012 when she was alone at home as her father was admitted in hospital and mother was by his side. It alleged that her uncle had attempted to rape her in 2009 also but nobody in her family believed her.
The girl told the court that after the second incident, she informed her grandfather who tutored her with the help of a lawyer to shield his son (the accused). She said she was not allowed to meet her parents for several days by the grandfather.
The convict was arrested from his residence in Aligarh five months after the charge sheet was filed, the police said.
During trial, the convict denied the allegations and claimed the motive to falsely implicate him was a property dispute between him and victim's parents. He also sought leniency on the ground that he was unmarried and committed the crime in a state of uncontrollable passion".
