Girl’s face unclear but 4th clip shows her ordeal: Court

NEW DELHI: A city court has sentenced a youth, who was in Class XII when he had repeatedly raped a junior girl from the same school and filmed the acts, to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment , observing that the survivor’s consent in this case did not matter as she was a minor.“There is an old saying that a witness can lie, but not a document,” the court said, noting the contents of the video clips brought on record. The accused was over 18 years of age.“The child victim appears normal and… had shown her private parts (to the accused) though initially she resisted. However, as she is less than 18 years, her consent is immaterial,” additional sessions judge Pritam Singh said.The youth was accused of raping the survivor on several occasions before and after December 2014.The survivor said that she was stalked both while going to and coming back from school.The survivor told the court that the accused made her unconscious and took her to an abandoned house before filming the crime. He had also warned her not to disclose the crimes to anyone or he would kill her family members. “There are four video clips pertaining to the case at hand, which were retrieved from the mobile phone/memory card of the accused,” noted the court.In the first three clips, only the face of the child victim is visible, whereas the third had obscene content showing her private parts. The fourth clip shows her face, which is not clear, but in the court’s view was the “most obscene” as it contained the survivor’s ordeal. The accused denied any involvement and claimed that the allegation was due to a tussle between his and the girl’s family.The court found contradictions in the survivor’s deposition in relation to the time when the accused had taken her to the dilapidated house. “However, the video clips proved that the accused had not only made obscene video of the child victim but also made illegal sexual relations with her on December 27, 2014,” the court observed.The accused was sentenced on three counts — Sections 6 read with 5(1) and 12 of POCSO Act. While on the first two counts he was awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000, the last count attracted a three-year jail term. The three counts dealt with offences of aggravated penetrative sexual assault, repeatedly committing the offence and sexual harassment (threatening her through the clips). Considering the age and the mental trauma caused to the survivor, the court awarded her Rs 1 lakh as compensation.