Rajkot court awards life imprisonment to man who raped his daughter

In her third statement to police, the victim alleged her paternal uncle Purushottam had violated her.

A fast-track court of Rajkot on Tuesday condemned a man to rigorous imprisonment for life after finding him guilty for repeatedly raping his own daughter and also fathering a child with the minor.

The court of additional sessions judge Asha Anjariya convicted Keshu Timbadiya (40), a farmer of Sardhar village of Rajkot district, for repeatedly raping his 16-year-old daughter over a period of one-and-half year before January, 2011 and making the minor pregnant. Taking a grim view of the nature of the crime, the court trashed plea of defence lawyer seeking leniency in awarding sentence.

“The accused is father of the victim and has made her pregnant by repeatedly raping her against her wish. The girl was living with the man and it was pious duty of the father to protect his minor daughter. However, it has been proven that the protector has turned predator in instant case. In order to prevent a stigma to the pious relationship of father-daughter in the society and given that even scriptures also term father-daughter relationship pious, the accused deserves no mercy as instead of protecting his daughter, he has committed a heinous crime,” the judge observed while delivering the verdict.

Assistant public prosecutor Binal Raveshia said the case could not have come to light at all but for doctors of Rajkot Civil Hospital and that the conviction preceded many flip-flops by the victim herself.

“When the victim, then 16, was admitted to Rajkot civil Hospital on January 25, 2011, doctors concluded she had labour pain and asked for history of the pregnancy. But neither the girl, nor her relatives accompanying her could give a proper answer. Eventually, the minor delivered a baby girl on that day. As doctors alerted police, the Women Police Station of Rajkot registered a case of rape. However, in the FIR, the victim named one Sachin as accused,” Raveshiya, who pleaded the case on behalf of the victim said.

But in further statement, the minor girl said that an unknown man had raped her. In her third statement to police, the victim alleged her paternal uncle Purushottam had violated her.

“However, police found all the previous statements suspicious. In her fourth statement, the minor confessed that her father had been raping her repeatedly for one-and-half-year but she had kept mum for fear of ignominy,” the APP further said.

After completing Class-VII, the victim had abandoned studies to help her mother, who is blind, and her farmer father.

“The infant the minor girl had delivered died after three days. But DNA tests confirmed that Timbadiya was bilogial father of the child the victim had delivered. This was a clinching evidence,” Raveshia added.

During the trial of the court, the victim turned hostile. In her testimony to the court in August 2011, the minor girl told the court that the child was not result of forced incestous relationship but rape by an unidentified man.Later, the two parties also proposed an out-of-court compromise but the court rejected it.

“Despite the victim tuning hostile, the court took overwhelming medical and forensic evidence into account to convict Timbadiya,” the APP further added.

Source:: Indian Express