While deposing before the special court last year, the victim had said that her mother visited her at the home during monthly visits and had asked her not to depose against the accused. (Representational Image)Observing that a nine-year-old rape victim had shown “exemplary courage” in deposing against her mother’s live-in partner despite no support from her mother, a special court this week sentenced him to 10 years in jail.
The victim lived with her mother, a commercial sex worker, in 2017, when the incident took place. After a police complaint was filed, the victim was sent to a Children’s Home. While deposing before the special court last year, the victim had said that her mother visited her at the home during monthly visits and had asked her not to depose against the accused.
“…even though victim was asked by her mother during monthly visits at Children’s Home for not deposing against the accused by giving inducement that they will go to village and reside together, the victim has stood her ground and has shown exemplary courage to depose against the accused,” special Judge Bharti Kale said in her order. The complaint was lodged in 2017 by the victim’s mother.
According to the prosecution led by special public prosecutor R V Tiwari, the victim’s mother usually dropped her at a shelter around 6 pm and was dropped back by the employee of the shelter in the morning.
On July 14, 2017, she dropped the victim at her neighbour’s home instead as she was late. When she returned to pick her up, the neighbour said that the accused had already taken her home. The victim’s mother saw both at her home. The next day, the victim’s mother wanted to leave for her native place but as she did not have the money, she went to a friend’s home in Bandra. The victim told her mother about the incident and she then took her to the police station to file a complaint.
During trial, the accused had claimed that the complaint was filed by the victim’s mother as he had refused to pay money to her for liquor. The victim’s mother told the court during her deposition that the complaint was filed in a drunken state. The accused had also claimed that there was a delay in filing of the complaint.
“In such nature of offence and when the accused was in a physical relationship with the complainant (victim’s mother) and when the complainant has turned hostile, the delay is understandable and it cannot be said that it was with the intention to falsely implicate the accused,” the court said. It held that the assault was “aggravated” as the victim was in the accused’s custody at the time of the incident. The court relied on the victim’s testimony, where she had also deposed about the violence faced by her mother at the hands of the accused.
The accused had claimed that the investigating officer had not recorded the statements of independent witnesses including the neighbour at whose house the accused picked the victim from. The court, however, said that he cannot take advantage of the lapse in investigation by the police.
The court also directed that Rs 20,000 from the fine amount imposed on the accused should be paid to the victim.
