NEW DELHI: A Delhi court recently awarded 27 years of rigorous imprisonment to a man for raping and impregnating a 14-year-old minor girl, his distant relative, in the year 2019.
The court of Additional Sessions Judge Preeti Parewa, while awarding the sentence, stated that the purpose of the criminal justice system is not only to achieve catharsis by handing down proportional punishment to the offender but also to rehabilitate the victim, who is scarred physically and mentally, forever.
“If we fail to do so, we are also abdicating our duties towards the victim, whose psychological well-being has been dented and may have longer repercussions,” the court said. The court also directed that Rs 15 lakh compensation be provided to the victim.
Last month, the court had convicted one Akash for offences of aggravated rape, causing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence and Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act.
The court, while convicting him, said that the testimonies of prosecution witnesses conclusively prove that the accused administered a stupefying, intoxicating, or unwholesome drug to the victim and thereafter committed penetrative sexual assault upon the person of the victim repeatedly on unknown dates and times, and as a result of the same, the victim got pregnant.
Additional Public Prosecutor Vineet Dahiya requested the court for the maximum prescribed sentence for the convict, submitting that the convict has committed heinous offences with the victim girl, whose age was about 14 years at the time of the commission of the offence. He does not deserve any leniency from the court and should be punished severely in order to send a strong message in society, submitted the APP.
The court, while awarding the sentence, said that in operating the sentencing system, the law should adopt the corrective machinery or the deterrence based on the factual matrix.
“Therefore, undue sympathy to impose an inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system, undermining public confidence in the efficacy of law, and society could not long endure under such serious threats. It is, therefore, the duty of every court to award a proper sentence having regard to the nature of the offence and the manner in which it was executed or committed, etc.,” said the court.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
