Mentally-challenged girl's rapist gets 10 years jail

A court here on Tuesday sentenced a man who raped a mentally-challenged girl to 10 years rigorous imprisonment.

Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja, while announcing the sentence on convict Durgesh Pandey, 23, said that "the accused had manipulated the body of the girl in such a manner to cause penetration".

"Convict (Pandey) by taking advantage of vulnerability of the victim, raped her, as he was found lying upon her and as per testimonies of eyewitnesses, the victim was in nude condition and the accused had lowered his pants," the court said, relying on the testimonies of eyewitnesses.

A case was lodged against Pandey on a complaint by a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus driver who claimed that on November 14, 2014, midnight, he saw Pandey lying upon a naked girl near a foot path at Gopalpur in north Delhi.

The driver called his uncle at the spot and they tried to remove the man from there but Pandey did not move after which they called police and he was arrested.

The victim was taken to a hospital where she was unable to tell the doctors anything about the incident. After her mental condition was discerned, she was referred to Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) for treatment.

According to victim's brother, he, with his mother, and two sisters including the victim, had come from Gujarat to the national capital to attend Sant Nirankari Satsang here where the girl got separated on November 13 last year. He lodged a missing complaint of his sister at Timarpur police station and was taken to IHBAS where he identified the girl.