A Delhi court has sentenced a man to 10 years in jail for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in a factory.
The court convicted and sentenced Chhedi Paswan, saying “the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.” However, the court took a lenient view and awarded the minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment to him.
“It is proved on record that the accused ad kidnapped the victim, wrongfully confined her for a night in a factory room and committed rape/penetrative sexual assault twice upon her,” Additional Sessions Judge Ashwani Kumar Sarpal said.
Forensic report
The court also said the testimony of the victim was reliable, convincing and trustworthy and the forensic report also confirmed that the girl was subjected to sexual assault.
Imposing a fine of ₹11,000 on the convict to be paid to the victim, the court directed the Delhi Legal Service Authority to pay an appropriate compensation to the victim for the mental torture and agony she suffered.
Victim’s mother had on February 11, 2013 lodged a missing person’s report stating that her daughter had gone to the market the previous day but had not returned home. During investigation, the police recovered the girl from the factory in front of her house.
The girl told the court in her evidence that on the day of incident, the accused took her to the factory saying that there was a call for her on his mobile phone.
When she went there to attend the call, the accused misbehaved with her to which she objected and sought to leave. The man then gagged and raped her twice and left her in the factory room after wrapping her in a blanket.
Due to suffocation, she fell unconscious and was rescued the next morning by her family members and the police.
