Man rapes woman under his care, sent to jail for 7 years
Ours is a conservative society and, therefore, a woman and more so a young unmarried woman will not put her reputation in peril by alleging falsely about forcible sexual assault.
A city court on Thursday sent a 33-year-old man to seven years in jail for raping a woman who was under his care while she was recovering from chickenpox in south east Delhi’s Khizarabad village in 2016.
The accused is the husband of the victim’s cousin.
The woman told police that in March 20, 2016, she was suffering from chickenpox and her parents had gone to their native village. So the accused, who was her cousin’s husband, brought her in his house to take care of her. After few days, he began molesting her for which she rebuked him.
The woman said that on March 28, 2016, at about 4am, he gagged her mouth and raped her. When she tried to raise an alarm, he slapped and abused her. He even threatened to kill her if she reported the matter to anyone. She got scared and did not report the matter to anyone and went back to her house.
On March 29, he came to her room and asked her to open the door. When she did not open, he threatened to break the door. She then made a call to police by dialling 100.
Based on her statement, a case was registered and the accused was arrested. He said that he has been falsely implicated in the case. According to the man, the woman used to call people to meet her in his absence. When he objected, she falsely implicated him in the rape case, he alleged.
No injuries were found on the victim’s body during her medical examination. However, the court said that it is not necessary that every incident of rape must result into injuries.
“Absence of injury on the private part of victim does not itself falsify the case of rape nor constitutes as evidence of consent,” said additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain.
The court noted that in the present case, the testimony of the victim is consistent and cogent which is corroborated by the other prosecution witnesses and material documents.
“Ours is a conservative society and, therefore, a woman and more so a young unmarried woman will not put her reputation in peril by alleging falsely about forcible sexual assault,” said the court.
The accused was held guilty of the offences punishable under sections 354 (assault), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. He was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years.