2 uncles guilty, sentencing on Nov 2

CHANDIGARH: A Chandigarh fasttrack court on Tuesday held two brothers guilty of raping their 10-year-old niece, in a case that made headlines after t he Supreme Court turned down the girl’s plea for abortion.

The girl, who gave birth on August 5, accused her uncles of raping her over five months. The quantum of sentence will be announced on November 2, and the men — who hail from Nepal — could face life imprisonment.

In mid-july, the girl’s mother, a domestic help, took her to a hospital after she complained of stomachache and it was revealed that she was 30 weeks pregnant.

A local court dismissed the girl’s plea for abortion after a doctors’ panel said medical intervention would be risky. The order was upheld by the SC.

India places a 20-week legal ceiling on abortion, except when there is a risk to the mother’s life. However, there have been a flood of petitions in recent times, with women seeking termination of pregnancy beyond that.

After the girl lodged a complaint, police arrested her mother’s cousin, employed as a guard at a Chandigarh hotel, for the crime. However, the case took a turn when the DNA samples of the newborn didn’t match those of the uncle. This was first reported by HT on September 11.

Seventeen days later, police named the man’s younger brother as the main accused and arrested him. The girl told the police that she was first raped by the second uncle, a cook at the same hotel, around Christmas in 2016. His older sibling assaulted her from April till early July.