Govt employee awarded seven-yr jail for raping sister-in-law

New Delhi, Jul 9: A Delhi court has sent a public servant to seven years in jail for repeatedly raping his sister-in-law and awarded the same prison term to his mother for abetting the crime.

The court said it has been proved that the man, who was suspended by the Railway department after lodging of the case, confined the woman and raped her and also threatened to kill her children, if she resisted his acts.

"I am of the opinion that prosecution has successfully proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that the accused man had forcibly confined the prosecutrix and raped her several times and also threatened to kill her children, if she did not maintain physical relations with him. "It has also been proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt that the accused woman (mother-in-law) had abetted the commission of offence of rape upon the prosecutrix by the man," Additional Sessions Judge Shail Jain said.

The court awarded seven years imprisonment each to the 35-year-old man and his mother. It also imposed a fine of Rs 21,000 and Rs 10,000 on the man and the elderly woman respectively and said that half of the amount be given to the victim as compensation.

The court also directed the legal service authority to award appropriate compensation to her. According to the prosecution, the woman got married in 2003 and was treated cruelly by her husband and mother-in-law. She had earlier lodged a case of sexual assault against her brother-in-law, who was arrested, and her in-laws were pressurising her to get him out on bail. When he got bail, he along with her mother-in-law decided to teach her a lesson and confined her in a shanty for a month when she was repeatedly raped by the man, she alleged.

Later, she escaped from the shanty and approached the police for lodging an FIR against the man and elderly woman. During the trial, the two accused claimed they were falsely implicated in the case.

The court, however, said it was difficult to presume that the woman will falsely implicated the man for the second time for the same offence even when the first case was pending. The woman convict sought a lenient view on the ground that she was a senior citizen and was suffering from various ailments. The man sought leniency, saying he has to take care of his wife and minor daughters.

PTI