HC upholds man's life term for raping minor daughter, making her pregnant

The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the life imprisonment of a man for raping his 15-year-old daughter, who became pregnant and gave birth to a child.

A bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Manoj Kumar Ohri said the testimony of the victim, which has remained un-shattered and uncontroverted, is creditworthy and has ring of truth in it.

"... although there is no gainsaying the legal position that her testimony by itself is sufficient to establish the case of the prosecution, in this case, the prosecutrix's testimony is materially corroborated by the other evidence on record. We have, therefore, no hesitation in saying that the cogent and clear evidence on record, leads to but one inescapable conclusion, that of the guilt of the appellant (convict)," the bench said.

The high court upheld the April 2018 decision of a trial court convicting the man for the offence of raping his minor daughter and awarding him life imprisonment. It dismissed the man's appeal challenging the trial court's verdict.

The bench said the man's plea that as the father of the girl he could not commit such a heinous crime of rape with his own daughter, is misplaced and misconceived in view of unequivocal evidence on record.

A complaint was lodged with the police by the man's sister in September 2013, after she was told by the girl about her father's acts.

The victim had informed her that the man was raping and threatening her for last one year due to which she became pregnant, the complaint said.

When the complainant confronted the man, he fled from the house with his younger daughter and the matter was reported to the police.

The victim was medically examined on the same day was found to be having pregnancy of 28 weeks.

The court noted that the victim gave birth to a male child who had been given in adoption.

The man had claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case as he reprimanded the girl for having an affair with a boy living in the neighbourhood.

The high court, however, held his defence to be completely untenable and vacuous as neither the identity of the boy has been disclosed at any stage nor any material has been produced on the record to substantiate the claim.

Regarding the man's assertion that the DNA test report of the baby delivered by the victim could not be procured and the prosecution has failed to conclusively prove their case, the court said it was devoid of merit.

It said although the blood sample of the baby had been sent to FSL for ascertaining the paternity, no result could be obtained since the same was found to be putrefied.

"In the meantime, the baby born to the prosecutrix had been given in adoption and it was not considered advisable or necessary in the interest of the child, to obtain fresh blood sample," the court added.

"The above lapse on the part of the investigating agency does not have the effect of effacing the otherwise reliable and trustworthy testimony of the prosecutrix...," it said.