A Delhi court has sentenced a youth to ten years rigorous imprisonment for raping and kidnapping a minor girl, while relying on her testimony and medical report.
Additional Sessions Judge M C Gupta, handed down the jail term to 28-year-old Munna and rejected his contention of delay in lodging the FIR, saying, "delay in lodging FIR is a normal phenomenon in cases like rape" as the victim is hesitant to report the matter.
"Delay in lodging of FIR is a normal phenomenon especially in cases like rape or outraging the modesty of a woman, the aggrieved/injured person or her relations will naturally think twice before giving a complaint to the police.
"There are several factors which weigh on the mind of the victim and her family members before lodging a complaint," the judge said, while adding that in a "tradition-bound" society in India, it would be unsafe to throw out the prosecution case "merely on this ground".
The court, which held Munna guilty for the offences under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape) of the IPC, also imposed a fine of Rs 22,000 on him.
While relying on the victim's statement, the court said, "On analysing the entire testimony of victim, it transpires that she has described the scenario implicating the accused to be the author of the crime committed upon her... It is cogent, reliable, convincing..."
It also noted that her statement corroborated the findings of her medical report which proved that she was raped.
According to the prosecution, August 29, 2009, the father of the 14-year-old victim lodged a missing complaint of his daughter and named Munna, who used to be a tenant in their house, as a suspect.
Two days later, the girl was rescued and Munna was arrested for the offences of kidnapping and rape, it said.
It further said that in her testimony, the victim told the police that she had gone for tuition from her residence in Kanjhawala here and when she reached at a nearby bus stand, Munna came there along with his two friends.
The girl further said that Munna broke her phone and kidnapped her after which he took her to his native village in UP and raped her.
During the trial, the youth denied the allegations and said there was a delay in lodging of FIR by her father which shows his malafide intention.
