Surat: Man gets 20 years in prison for raping four-year-old girl

Police had submitted the chargesheet with the Surat district court on December 15, 2017, which includes medical and documentary evidence and statements of neighbours.

The Surat district court on Saturday sentenced a 27-year-old construction worker to 20-year imprisonment for raping a four-year-old girl.

The case dates back to 2017 when the daughter of a textile worker in Surat was lured her by neighbour Surjitkumar Mistry, a native of Bihar. On 15 September, 2017, he took her to his house, where he was staying alone, and raped her.

After hearing the girl screaming, the local residents reached Mistry’s house. The girl’s parents also turned up and she disclosed the incident to her mother. The local residents beat the accused and later handed him to police. The girl’s mother lodged a police complaint.

Police had registered offence under IPC sections 376(2),(i),(j), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence, 2012 sections 4, 5 (i), (m) and 6 and arrested Surjitkumar Mistry.

Police had submitted the chargesheet with the Surat district court on December 15, 2017, which includes medical and documentary evidence and statements of neighbours.

The case was heard by Additional District and Sessiosn judge A H Dhamani.

After going through the arguments from both the sides and on the basis of statements of witnesses and documentary evidences, judge A H Dhamani had found Surjikumar Mistry guilty.

In the order, judge A H Dhamanihad observed, “By committing such act, the accused had crossed all the limits of humanity and to condemn such incidents even the words are less… For the sexual offences on minor girls and woman, several amendments are made in law to make it stricter. Taking the present case into consideration, to set up an example in the society and to prevent such incidents, strict punishment should be given, so that nobody dares to do such crime.”

Assistant Public Prosecutor Rajesh Dobariya said, “Three neighbours of the girl had recorded their statements under CrPC 164. During the hearing, the accused was made to walk in the court room and due to some problem on his right leg, he could not walk properly. The girl identified the accused by the way he walked. The court had also considered medical evidence and documentary evidence and statements of witnesses.”

Advocate N A Patel had appeared for the accused in the district court.

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