Court sends man to 5 years in jail for raping minor

A Delhi court has sentenced a man to five years in jail for raping an 11-year-old girl, saying modesty of a female is an intrinsic part of her persona and no person can barge into her privacy under any circumstances.

Additional Sessions Judge Seema Maini convicted Satish (24) under section 10 (aggravated sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and section 354 A (i) (physical contact involving unwelcome, explicit sexual overtures) and (ii) (demand for sexual favours) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court said in its order: "The victim, a young girl of 11 years, is a female who was in her formative age at the time of the mission of the offense by the convict. Trampling the child's body, sexually assaulting her and making a demand for undue sexual favors would surely have caused the child not just a mental shock and trauma at the relevant time, but would have and shall continue to haunt the child in the years to come."

According to the prosecution, in 2013, the man was installing a lift in the building where the minor girl stayed with her family, entered her house while she was alone and sexually assaulted her.

The complaint stated that he had asked her to come to the lift and said he would offer her money. The girl managed to escape from there and raised an alarm. Her father, who was downstairs, caught the accused while he was trying to run away. The girl narrated the incident to her father and he registered a case with the police.

The accused had said he was falsely implicated and claimed trial.

The court, while pronouncing the order, said that the convict was guilty of destroying the very formative childhood of the victim.

"It is not just an 'inappropriate touch' that the convict is guilty of, but rather the convict is guilty of destroying the very formative childhood of the victim... No person has any right to invade into the other's life and thrash the person's privacy and dignity. Modesty to a female is what fragrance is to a flower. It is an intrinsic part of a female's persona. No person, whosoever, can barge into the privacy of a female and outrage the female's modesty, under any circumstances," it said.