The court also considered aggravating circumstances such as the traumatic impact the incident had on the complainant’s marriage. (Representational)A Delhi court Tuesday sentenced a 38-year-old man to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for the digital rape of a US national in 2013. Additional Sessions Judge, Special Fast Track Court, Harish Dhudani also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the convict, directing that the amount be paid to the victim.
The fact that the accused has five dependents, including aged parents and two children, and that he has an income of Rs 13,00,000 approximately for the financial year 2017-18, were taken into consideration while awarding the fine.
The court also considered aggravating circumstances such as the traumatic impact the incident had on the complainant’s marriage.
Convicting the accused, the fast track court judge rejected his request to brand the woman as an “unreliable witness”, saying she has come all the way from the US to depose. It had held that she “apparently had no other interest left in India since her marriage… had already broken down irretrievably after the incident”.
Two foreign nationals, from the US and Russia, were allegedly sexually abused by the accused, who was their landlord’s son, in the early hours of June 24, 2013, when they were sleeping in their room.
Based on the statement of one of the women, a case was lodged against the accused. During the trial, the accused claimed there were disputes between the woman’s husband and him.
But the court dismissed the accused’s claim and concluded that he is guilty of the offence of rape/digital rape under IPC Section 376. It, however, observed that with regard to the other victim, police failed to prove the rape charge against the accused since it could not produce her for deposition.
The Additional Public Prosecutor, assisted by advocates Karuna Nundy and Anivesh Bhardwaj, the counsel for the victim, had argued: “Though presence of (one) victim could not be procured, this fact would not vitiate the case of the prosecution, which has succeeded in proving its case by examining the other victim. It is, thus, prayed that the accused be convicted of charged offences.”
