HC upholds father’s conviction for ‘repeatedly raping’ minor girl

Kolkata: With DNA report proving that the accused was the father who repeatedly raped her minor daughter, making her pregnant with a girl-child, the Calcutta High Court upheld the conviction, observing that witnesses may lie but circumstances may not.

The Division Bench presided by Justice Joymalya Bagchi, who has now been appointed as a Supreme Court judge, was moved by the appellant (father) challenging the trial court judgement and order sentencing him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment under IPC and POCSO sections.

In 2017, the victim (minor daughter) was returning home from tuition when the father dragged her to his shop’s first floor and raped her. Out of fear she kept mum. One week later, he again raped her and thereafter, on several occasions. On April 23, 2017 she became ill and was taken to a nursing home where she was found pregnant. The father was arrested during a probe.

The victim was found to be 16 years at the time of the incident, as observed from her birth certificate issued by the Gobardanga Municipal Office. She deposed that she was repeatedly raped and gave birth to a girl child. Her deposition was corroborated by her mother and other kins. The scientific officer of CFSL, Kolkata, proved the DNA profile of the appellant, victim girl and her newborn female child. Report showed the appellant is the biological father of the girl child.

Prosecution argued the victim was not a reliable witness. Her version was improbabilised by a defence witness who said he didn’t know that she was raped at a mango garden. The father’s kins denied rape.

The bench, also comprising Justice Gaurang Kanth, observed that the incident took place on the first floor of the appellant’s shop room and not in a mango garden. “CFSL report unerringly establishes the appellant is the father of the child. This proves sexual intercourse between the appellant and the minor victim.

In view of her minority, consent of the victim is irrelevant,” the court observed and dismissed the appeal.