A 42-year-old man whose desire to have a son led him to rape and impregnate his daughter has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Alibaug district sessions court.
The 15-year-old was found five months pregnant in June 2016. “The case came to light after a social worker learnt that a minor girl, staying with her stepmother, stepsister and father, was pregnant in Uran. When her stepmother asked her about the pregnancy, she named a boy who had left their village. The social worker approached the police, who met the girl and that is when she revealed that she was raped by her father who had asked her to blame the other boy,” a police officer from Uran said.
The accused who had two daughters, from two different wives, wanted a son. He had convinced his daughter from his first wife that she needed a brother and had sexually abused her. “The DNA report of the child, a girl, born to the victim and that of the accused matched which helped prove his role. The victim too revealed the truth later,” said public prosecutor Ashwini Bandiwadekar-Patil.
The baby was handed over to an orphanage. The victim too is being looked after by an NGO which is also helping in her education. The accused was convicted under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and fined ₹25,000.