A youth has been sentenced to seven years in jail by a Delhi court for raping a minor girl after kidnapping and forcibly marrying her.
Besides the jail term to Surender, 28, additional sessions judge T R Naval also sent neighbour Bala, 48, to jail for five years for kidnapping the 14-year-old girl and compelling her for marriage in June 2006.
"It is held that evidence on record has proved that both the accused (Surender and Bala) in furtherance of their common intention kidnapped the prosecutrix (minor) by adopting deceitful means and under coercion with the intention that she may be compelled to marry against her will with Surender and she may be forced to do illicit intercourse and he also committed sexual intercourse with the girl against her will and without her consent," the court said.
The judge also said that it had been proved that both the accused in furtherance of their common intention had kidnapped the minor girl from legal guardianship of her father without his consent.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 and Rs 13,000 on Surender and Bala, a woman, respectively.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the morning of June 30, 2006 when the girl was going for work in a factory in Gandhi Nagar area in East Delhi and Bala, who was living in her neighbourhood, called her and asked her to go with Surrender to a temple.
Instead of taking her to the temple, Surrender took her to his home in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, raped her and then forcibly married her, the police said.
The victim had told the police that she had not raise an alarm as Surender had threatened to kidnap her sisters and kill her parents also.
The minor told the police that after few days, Bala had come to Surender's house asking him for money but when he refused to do so, she told them that she would sell the girl to someone else for Rs 5,000.
On the girl's insistence, Surender dropped her near her house here in July 2006.
Based on her statement, an FIR was lodged and Bala was arrested on November 12, 2006. Surrender, who was initially evading arrest, was caught later on.
During the trial, Surender admitted that Bala had asked him to take away the girl but pleaded that the minor had accompanied and married him of her own will.
Bala sought leniency in sentencing saying she was a woman and has to support her five children.
Surender also sought a lenient view on the ground that he belongs to a poor family and has to support his aged parents.
