A 22-year-old man has been sent to seven years in jail by a Delhi court for abducting and raping his landlord's wife.
Additional sessions judge T R Naval held Delhi resident Mohammed Salim guilty of raping the 25-year-old woman after offering her sedative-laced drink, saying there was no evidence to show any motive for her to depose against her tenant unless he committed the offence.
"I come to the conclusion that prosecution has successfully proved its case against accused Salim beyond any reasonable suspicion and shadow of doubt that he committed not only offence of causing hurt by poisonous substance, offence of abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage, etc. and offence of secretly and wrongfully confinement of an abducted person but also he committed offence of rape," the judge said.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 24,000 on Tahir Pur resident Salim, who is suffering from Tuberculosis, and said if the amount is realised, Rs 15,000 be given to the victim as compensation. Besides this compensation, she will also be entitled to get other relief, if available to her under other laws.
According to the prosecution, the woman had had gone to market to buy vegetables on July 22, 2011 when Salim offered to accompany her and gave her a cold drink on the way.
After consuming the drink, she became unconscious and on regaining her senses she found herself in a room, the prosecution said, adding that Salim kept her confined there for six days and raped her.
On July 28, 2011, while on a search for his wife, the landlord found her in a room in Ghaziabad and brought her back to their residence in Delhi, following which he informed the police about it.
During the trial, Salim claimed he was falsely implicated in the case due to the couple's enmity with him.
The court, however, rejected his submission and said it is not only the duty of the judge to see that an innocent person should not be punished even if hundred offenders are allowed to go scot-free but he also has to see that the accused who has committed the crime must not go unpunished.
