Ex-Air Force staff rapes minor daughter in Uttarakhand, sentenced to 20 years

Dehradun: A court in Dehradun has sentenced a former Air Force personnel to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping his minor daughter.

In its judgment delivered on Wednesday, the court made strong observations, stating that the father, whose responsibility was to protect his daughter, had instead destroyed her physical and mental health, and no leniency could be shown towards such a criminal.

Special Judge (POCSO) Archana Sagar also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the convict and ordered him to pay Rs 3 lakh as compensation to the victim.

The victim told the court that her father had started sexually abusing her when she was just five or six years old. He told her that this was normal and that every father loves his daughter this way.

Her father also threatened her to not tell anyone about it, the victim said.

However, after enduring her father's abuse for years, in November 2023, the 17-year-old victim mustered the courage to tell her mother, who filed a police complaint the same day and the IAF personnel was later arrested.