Delhi HC upholds man’s 12-year jail term for 6-year-old daughter’s rape

Delhi High Court has upheld the 12-year jail term of a man who was convicted of sexually assaulting his six-year-old daughter, saying the testimonies of witnesses, including the child, were consistent.

The high court dismissed the man’s appeal challenging his conviction and sentence for sexually assaulting his minor daughter in 2014.

The court rejected the convict’s argument that the child was tutored by her mother to falsely implicate him as the couple did not have a cordial relationship.

“So far as the argument that the victim was tutored by the mother of the victim/wife of the appellant (convict) as she did not wish to reside with the accused anymore is concerned, non-cordial relations between the mother of the victim and the accused cannot lead to a presumption of tutoring when the account of the victim in regard to the offence does not suffer from any inconsistencies,” Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said.

The court said there were no major inconsistencies between the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses — the victim, her mother and her sister. Therefore, the court did not find any justification to take a contrary view.

According to the prosecution, the child’s father sexually assaulted her in April 2014 when her mother had gone to work. When the woman returned home, the minor girl told her about the incident after which she lodged an FIR.

A trial court had convicted and sentenced the man for aggravated sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in April 2017.

(With PTI inputs)

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