Rajkot court sentences auto driver for raping minor after quack, convicted for rape of same victim, blows the whistle on him
The police began investigating the second accused after the quack told the POCSO court that the former had fathered the stillborn child of the girl, a fact which was confirmed after remains of the child were exhumed and DNA tests carried out.
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According to the prosecution’s case, the girl – then 14 years old – and his younger brother, started to stay with their sister after her marriage with the quack. During her stay at his home, the quack repeatedly raped her for around three years and got her pregnant.
Sixteen months after a special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court sentenced a quack from Upleta town in Rajkot district to life imprisonment for raping his minor sister-in-law, the court on Wednesday also convicted the quack’s relative for raping the girl.
The police began investigating the second accused after the quack told the POCSO court that the former had fathered the stillborn child of the girl, a fact which was confirmed after remains of the child were exhumed and DNA tests carried out.
The court of A M Shaikh, special POCSO judge of Dhoraji in Rajkot, on Wednesday held a 24-year-old autorickshaw driver guilty of raping the girl after taking her to Rajkot from Upleta in December 2020 after the quack, with whom she used to live, was arrested for raping her.
The driver was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000 after he was convicted under Section 376(2)(n) (repeatedly raping the same woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act.
However, the court acquitted him under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping a woman with an intention to forcing her to marrying her against her will) of the IPC, as the minor told the court that the autorickshaw driver had not abducted her but she had willingly gone with him after the quack was jailed and her father passed away.
The order of the court became available on Thursday.
According to the prosecution’s case, the girl – then 14 years old – and her younger brother, started to stay with their sister after her marriage with the quack. During her stay at his home, the quack repeatedly raped her for around three years and got her pregnant.
When she complained about stomach ache to a neighbour of the quack, the neighbour alerted the police. Subsequently, the girl’s father filed a police complaint against her brother-in-law on July 2, 2020. The 42-year-old quack was arrested and convicted by court on March 17, 2023.
The girl, meanwhile, gave birth to a child which, the prosecution said, was fathered by the quack. However, after giving birth, the girl moved in with the autorickshaw driver.
“During his trial, the quack told the court in 2023 that the autorickshaw driver was the real culprit, that the latter had raped the girl after taking her to Rajkot and fathered a stillborn child delivered by the minor. He also wrote to the court to this effect from jail. Following this, an FIR was registered against the auto-rickshaw driver on January 19, 2023,” Additional Public Prosecutor Kartikey Parekh told The Indian Express.
After the autorickshaw driver’s arrest, the body of the stillborn child was exhumed from a burial ground and sent for DNA examination. The samples matched with those of the minor girl and the autorickshaw driver.
“Though the victim turned hostile during trial, she conceded that the autorickshaw driver and she used to stay together. Noting that she had not attained age of consent, the court pronounced the autorickshaw driver guilty and sentenced him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment,” Parekh said.
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