Visually impaired get 10 years RI for raping blind girl

"The prosecution has been fully able to prove its case against the accused beyond the shadow of doubt that he committed rape upon the girl and also threatened her and wrongfully confined her in the hostel so that she may not tell the factum of rape to anybody else," the court said.

Additional Sessions Judge Madhu Jain also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on Rajender Gupta after holding him guilty of rape and other offences under the IPC. The court refused to show leniency to the convict on the ground that he was a visually-challenged person saying he, being the administrator of the hostel where the 21-year-old victim used to reside, had betrayed her trust.

"Convict is no doubt a visually impaired person but at the same time, the victim is also a visually impaired girl who came to stay in the hostel with the hope that she shall be able to study further and will make a career for herself," the court said. It did not lend any credence to the contention of the convict that he had a clean record as no other visually-impaired girl had levelled any such allegation against him.

"Merely because no other visually impaired girl has made any such allegation against the convict is no ground to presume him innocent or to show any leniency towards him," ASJ Jain said. "The girl was kept in the hostel under the protection and care of the convict and it is clear that the convict has betrayed the trust of prosecutrix and her parents. Her parents had kept the prosecutrix in the hostel in the faith that she shall be able to study further and do something in her life. But the convict has betrayed their trust," the court said.

It also did not allow a plea by the convict that the medical report of the girl did not support her allegation. "The girl as well as the accused were examined after 5/6 days of the incident and if no fresh injuries marks were seen by the doctor at that time, then for this no adverse presumption can be drawn," the court said.

The counsel for the accused, who raised a plea that he was impotent and did not have any children from his marriage, could not convince the court which said "there can be 100 reasons for infertility and if accused or his wife are not able to bear a child, then no presumption can be raised that accused is impotent also".

Gupta was arrested on January 16, 2008, after a case was lodged with Timarpur police station by the victim that she had been ravished by him five days ago.