Testimony of victim enough: Delhi HC finds father guilty of rape
Citing several Supreme Court orders that shows the statement of the prosecutrix, if reliable, is enough to convict a rape accused, the court said the convict would not be entitled to any clemency till he spends 20 years in jail.
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A bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Mukta Gupta also said that “injuries are not a sine qua non (an essential condition) to prove the charge of rape”.
Upholding a trial court order to sentence a man to life imprisonment for raping his nine-year-old daughter, the Delhi High Court Wednesday said that “the testimony of the prosecutrix (the victim), if well-founded and trustworthy, is by itself sufficient to convict the accused”.
Citing several Supreme Court orders that shows the statement of the prosecutrix, if reliable, is enough to convict a rape accused, the court said the convict would not be entitled to any clemency till he spends 20 years in jail.
A bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Mukta Gupta also said that “injuries are not a sine qua non (an essential condition) to prove the charge of rape”.
The court was hearing a plea by the accused in the case. A trial court had, in February 2013, sentenced the accused for life under IPC sections 376, 377 and 506 for raping his daughter.
On September 30, 2012, the accused’s wife had brought her daughter to the police station to register a complaint that she had been raped. A chargesheet in the case was file in December that year, after which the prosecution examined 16 witnesses, including the doctor, medical officer, the victim’s maternal grandmother, magistrate, and police officers.
Denying the charges, the counsel for the accused said he was falsely implicated as he had objected to his wife’s “illicit relations”. She had tutored her daughter, made material improvements in the statements, and had not disclosed the exact date of the alleged incident, the counsel said.
“The clear, creditworthy and unshattered testimony of the prosecutrix is sufficient to establish the case of the prosecution,” said the public prosecutor.
Saying the prosecution had proved the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, the bench observed, “Nothing can be more heinous than a crime committed on the person of a child by her father, the one who is duty-bound to provide her unflinching protection from all harm.”
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