JOIN USA man has been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment by a Delhi court for raping a minor girl, who is one of his distant relatives.
The court relied on the statement of the nine-year-old victim while convicting Dinesh Singh, saying her testimony was “trustworthy and reliable”.
“I did not find any ground to disbelieve the testimony of the girl, which is trustworthy, reliable and inspires confidence. The prosecution has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt against the accused that he had raped and threatened her as well,” said additional sessions judge Rajneesh Kumar Gupta.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on Singh.
Police said an FIR was filed on the minor’s statement, who said she had gone to give tea to Singh on April 10, 2011 when he raped her.
The two lived in the same building. Singh then threatened her not to disclose the incident to anyone. The girl, however, managed to tell it to her father, the prosecution said.
Singh was arrested and charges under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC were framed against him.
During trial, Singh said he was falsely implicated in the case, and his lawyer argued that there was “unreasonable delay” in filing the FIR, which created doubt in the prosecution’s case.
The court, however, dismissed the submissions of the defence counsel, saying the delay of 14 days in filing the FIR “is only on account of the threat given by the accused to the girl”.