Rape a serious blow to honour, dignity and womanhood: Court

Rape is a serious blow to the honour, dignity and womanhood of a victim, a Delhi court today observed while showing no leniency and awarded maximum sentence of life imprisonment to the five convicts in the 2010 Dhaula Kuan gangrape case.
"Rape is a serious blow to the honour, dignity and womanhood of the victim and besides causing immense trauma to her, it has an everlasting impact upon her mind as well as soul," Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said.
The court also said that the crime committed by them was "intensely grave, serious and odious" in nature and has an impact upon the society as a whole.

"The crime committed by the convicts is intensely grave, serious and odious in nature. Rape is the most hated crime in the society. It not only affects the physique and psychology of the victim but has an impact upon the society as a whole.
"The rape victim has to live with the scar of rape throughout her life and the incident of rape shatters her life as well as her dreams in a violent manner. Her marriage prospects diminish to a large extent and she finds it unable to engage in routine job which she may have been doing before incident," the court said.

It also took into account the ordeal of the victim, who had to leave her job and was forced to earn her livelihood by running a petty shop at her native place in Mizoram.

"In the instant case, I was informed that the rape victim had to leave her job, where from she was earning handsomely, soon after the incident and shifted to her native place in northeast where she is making both ends meet by running a petty shop," the judge said, adding that this amply indicates the impact of a rape incident on the victim.
The court also said that the society itself looks upon rape with utmost "indignation" and "abhorration" and expects the perpetrators to be dealt with sternly.

"The courts while sentencing and offender, cannot ignore the impact of the crime upon the society and the society's expectations upon the court in dealing with such criminals. In other words, imposition of sentence without considering its effect on the social order would be a futile exercise," it said.