The Delhi High Court has reduced the 30-year sentence of a rape case convict to 20 years. File
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Delhi High Court has reduced the 30-year sentence of a rape case convict to 20 years.
The court modified the jail term after it came on record that the convict was working as a safai sahayak (helper of cleaning staff) in jail and his overall conduct was satisfactory. The court further observed that he had been in custody since his arrest on April 6, 2015.
The court upheld his punishment under Sections 3 and 4 (penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act aside from Sections 376(2)(i) (committing rape on a woman when she is under 16 years of age) and (n) (committing rape repeatedly on the same woman), 450 (house-trespass), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
The convict had appealed against the trial court’s 2013 verdict holding him guilty for the rape of a 12-year-old girl. The minor and her mother on April 4, 2015 went to the police and alleged the man, who was their neighbour, had repeatedly raped her.
The girl said in December 2014 when her family members were not at home, he came over to her house, offered food and showed her obscene photos on his phone and sexually assaulted her.
The matter unfolded after her mother took her to a doctor after the minor complained of stomach ache.
She was found pregnant and doctors advised her to undergo medically termination of pregnancy following which DNA samples were preserved and sent to the forensic science laboratory for analysis.
The man had claimed “discrepancies in the girl’s testimony” making it unreliable.
Published – July 15, 2025 12:22 am IST
