A court in Delhi has sentenced a man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for luring and repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl in 2018, saying justice demands a punishment fitting to the crime.
Additional Sessions Judge Babita Puniya trashed the defence counsel's argument that the absence of additional bodily injuries on the victim was a mitigating factor.
"I am of the view that even no notice can be taken of that (absence of additional injuries) as no form of rape is better than others. Rape is itself a violent crime…," she said in the judgement dated August 21.
The court was hearing the case against the 23-year-old man, who was convicted for the penal offence of rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act provision for aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
Special Public Prosecutor Sharwan Kumar Bishnoi sought the strictest and severest sentence, saying the victim was "lured and repeatedly raped".
The court dismissed the argument about consensual physical relations, saying the minor was legally incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse.
Referring to a 1994 Supreme Court verdict, it said, "Justice demands that courts should impose punishment fitting to the crime so that the courts reflect public abhorrence of the crime.
"The courts must not only keep in view the rights of the criminal but also the rights of the victim of crime and the society at large while considering the imposition of appropriate punishment." The court after considering the mitigating and aggravating factors sentenced the convict to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 376 (3) (punishment for committing rape on a minor).
It also sentenced him to two years RI under IPC Section 363 (kidnapping), while adding that both sentences will run concurrently.
The court awarded Rs 10.5 lakh compensation to the victim.
