HC upholds man’s life term for raping 6-year-old girl

The Delhi High Court has upheld the life imprisonment awarded to a man for kidnapping and raping a 6-year-old girl in 2015, saying the convincing evidence tendered by the victim was corroborated by medical evidence.

A bench of Justices Mukta Gupta and Poonam A Bamba dismissed an appeal filed by the man challenging his conviction and sentence awarded by the trial court.

"In view of the cogent and convincing evidence of the victim which is duly corroborated by her medical evidence and the statement of the mother of the victim, we find no error in the impugned judgment of conviction and order on sentence. Appeal is accordingly dismissed," the bench said.

The high court also rejected the man's defence that he was falsely implicated owing to a parking dispute between him and the victim's family, noting there was no proof to back the claim.

"Even a suggestion in this regard was put to mother of victim but it was denied by her. Furthermore, there appears to be no cogent reason for the family to falsely implicate the appellant (man) and letting the actual culprit go scot free," it said.

According to the prosecution, in the evening of April 8, 2015, the child was playing with her friends outside her house and the man, who was known to her, came there and took her to a secluded place on the pretext of playing with her.

When the child did not return home, her parents and neighbours started searching for her but could not locate her.

Late in the night when the girl's parents were about to go to the police station, the accused came and handed over the child to them and left the place, the prosecution said.

Police were called and after recording the statement of the child, who named the man as the perpetrator, arrested him and a case was registered.

As per the medical report, several injuries and bite marks were found on the child's body.

The man claimed he was falsely implicated in the case and that he had found the child at a traffic signal from where he brought her home and handed her over to her mother.

The trial court had in 2018 held him guilty of kidnapping, raping and injuring the child.