New Delhi: A Delhi court has awarded eight years jail term to a 20-year-old youth for raping and trying to kill a physically-challenged woman, saying that dignity of the victim has been "shredded" by his act.
"Her dignity is shredded. The social stigma attached to this crime is such that many a times, a crime would go unreported by the victim," Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain said.
The judge further said convict Amar Kumar Pandey, a Bihar resident, has committed the "vile act of rape" upon the woman who was physically challenged and attempted to kill her when she insisted him to marry her.
The court said the convict did not want to marry the woman who was physically disabled and simply wanted to have sexual relations by making false promise to marry her. The court also rejected Pandey's leniency plea saying he was only 20 years old and has a family to support.
"It is true that the convict is aged about 20 years and has a family to support but on the other hand we must see the plight of the girl, who was subjected to rape, which is universally considered to be amongst the most morally and physically, reprehensible crime in society and assault on the body, mind, privacy and the entire fabric of the victim," the court said.
The court awarded seven years of rigorous imprisonment for the offence punishable under section 376 (rape) of IPC and eights years for offence punishable under section 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC. It imposed a fine of Rs 35,000 on Pandey and recommended that Delhi Legal Service Authority should award appropriate compensation to the victim.
The court had on August 27, convicted Pandey saying the prosecution has successfully proved its case against him for the offences of rape and attempt to murder. According to the prosecution, a physically challenged woman was found in a drain at a jungle in Govind Puri here in an injured condition in September 2013.
She was taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where she said in her statement that she was raped by Pandey and when she insisted for marriage, he had attacked her with a knife.
