A Delhi court on Monday, 12 February, awarded a youth 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping and filming a minor, who was his junior in school, when he was in Class 12. It added that the survivor’s consent in the case did not matter, since she was a minor.
“The child victim appears normal and… had shown her private parts (to the accused) though initially she resisted. However, as she is less than 18 years, her consent is immaterial,” Pritam Singh, additional sessions judge said, reported The Times of India.
Four videos pertaining to the case were retrieved from the memory card of the accused, the report adds. While in the first three videos, the victim’s face is what is visible, the third one reportedly contained obscene content that showed her private parts. The fourth, the report adds, contained the survivor’s ordeal.
According to the Times of India report, the victim had said that the accused, who was over 18 years of age at the time, had stalked her to and from school and after making her unconscious, had taken her to an abandoned building and raped her.
He had filmed the ordeal and warned her that if she told anyone, he would kill her family members, the report added.
The report, however, adds that the victim’s deposition statement contained some contradictions in terms of the time when the accused had taken her to the abandoned house.
However, the video clips proved that the accused had not only made obscene video of the child victim but also made illegal sexual relations with her on 27 December 2014.The Court’s statement, as reported by The Times of India
Following this, the accused was charged for aggravated penetrative sexual assault, repeatedly committing the offence and sexual harassment (since he threatened her with the clips), under Sections 6 read with 5(1) and 12 of POCSO Act, the report adds.
While on two counts he was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000, he received a three-year jail-term for the third.
The report also added that the court granted a Rs 1 lakh compensation to the victim, considering her age and the mental trauma she encountered due to the episodes.
(With inputs from The Times of India)
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