Pune: A special court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a 30-year-old Chinchwad resident to 21 years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) for raping his four-year-old niece near the railway tracks behind Nagsennagar settlement on October 2, 2018. The convict had entered the Chinchwad police jurisdiction in violation of an externment order before kidnapping and raping the girl, police said. Special judge K P Kshirsagar observed in his judgment that the survivor had broken into tears on seeing the accused when she was asked to identify him during the test identification parade.
She was not a tutored witness and her conduct was natural and she had given rational answers to questions posed to her in the testimony. Her evidence inspires confidence as it is truthful and reliable and corroborates with the evidence given by other witnesses, the judge said. The judge referred to the overall circumstances and observed that the survivor, her family members and other witnesses did not have a motive to implicate the accused.
"The evidence of all prosecution witnesses is unblemished and is free from any kind of doubts. The accused committed the crime to get pleasure by forceful sexual assault," the judge said and observed that the accused had failed to offer an explanation to incriminating circumstances against him. The prosecution had brought all circumstances on record to show his complicity in the rape beyond reasonable doubt, the judge added.
The judge found the accused guilty of an offence under section 376-AB of the IPC, which refers to the rape of a woman under the age of 12 years and provides for a minimum of 20 years of punishment. However, the judge did not pronounce any separate sentence for an equivalent offence under section 4 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in view of the provisions under section 42 of the special enactment. Apart from the main prison term, the court sentenced the convict to 11 years RI for an offence under section 376 (2) (f) of IPC, which refers to rape by a relative, guardian, or teacher of, or a person in a position of trust or authority towards the woman, and five years RI each for offences under sections 363 (kidnapping) of IPC and section 10 (aggravated sexual assault) of the POCSO Act.
The court imposed a total fine of Rs75,000 on the convict for these offences and recommended the Pune district legal services authority to grant apt compensation to the survivor as per the state govt's compensation scheme. Special public prosecutor Nitin Konghe relied on the testimony of 10 witnesses, including the girl, her parents, medical and other evidence like she was last seen in the company of the accused, to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Konghe had brought to the court's notice that the accused was involved in 11 criminal cases and had breached his externment order to commit the heinous crime.
The prosecution had pleaded for stringent punishment considering his criminal antecedents..
