PANAJI: The Goa children’s court sentenced a 69-year-old man from Bardez on Tuesday to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for raping a nine-year-old girl in 2012.
He has also been sentenced to three years simple imprisonment for using criminal force to outrage the girl’s modesty and has to spend one more month in jail for wrongfully restraining the girl. The sentences shall run concurrently. The incident occurred in April 2012 and was reported a month later.
The girl did not inform her family, but indirectly disclosed the incident to a friend, whose mother then informed the mother of the girl. The accused was arrested on May 15 and released on bail on May 29.
President of the court
Vandana Tendulkar stated in the order that the girl “has given true narration of the incident and the other facts related to the incident”, and that her “testimony is otherwise not shaken in the cross on the material aspects”.
“It is a normal trend of society that people try to hide such facts than to come out with it easily,” the court stated. The major argument on the part of the accused was on the ground of delay.
The mother of the girl explained the delay stating that after she was told about the incident she had to first confirm it with her daughter, then discuss the matter with her husband, after which she complained to
police.
The court also took into consideration the age of the accused as against the age of the girl, and that she was familiar with accused’s daughter and addressed the accused as ‘uncle’ and hence, it was quite rational on her part to listen to him.
Representative image
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