A city court last week sentenced a 20-year-old man to seven years of imprisonment and fined him Rs 7,000 for kidnapping and raping a 12-year-old girl. According to the victims statement,the man had used food and travel to lure the girl when she was alone at home.
In November last year,the girls mother registered a missing report alleging that a 20-year-old tenant,Batla,had kidnapped her daughter. Two days later,the girl had come back home. Her medical examination revealed that she had been subjected to regular sexual intercourse.
The girl told the court that Batla had come to her house when she was alone and promised to give her food and take her to various places. He had also taken her to a temple at Noida and proposed to marry her. However,the girl mentioned that she refused to be married,upon which Batla took her to a house in Noida and raped her for two days.
According to Batla,the girl was in love with him and accompanied him willingly. He also mentioned that sexual relations between them were established with her consent. His arguments were not accepted by the court.
Best of Express Premium
The convict has misguided prosecutrix,a girl just 12 years of age… and committed sexual intercourse upon her. The consent of the prosecutrix is immaterial when she is below 16 years of age in a case of rape and below 18 years in a case of kidnapping, Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Kumar held while handing down the seven-year term to Batla.
However,Batla was acquitted under charges of wrongful confinement on grounds that there was no evidence that he had forcibly detained the girl in his house while raping her.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
