Uncles guilty of raping niece, aged 10

A Chandigarh court on Tuesday convicted two brothers for repeatedly raping their sister’s 10-year-old daughter. The child delivered a girl on August 17. The quantum of sentence will pronounced on November 2.

The case, which led to a huge public outcry, was put on fast track after the victim’s maternal uncle, Kul Bahadur, was arrested on July 18 for raping her. The investigation took an uglier turn when the DNA sample of the baby born to the victim did not match with the accused.

The police then formed an SIT. Further disclosures by the victim led the police to Bahadur’s younger brother, Shankar, who was also arrested for raping the child.

In her statements, the victim told the police that her elder maternal uncle, Kul, started raping her in December last year and it continued for several months, until Shankar, also her maternal uncle, started raping her. The DNA sample of the newborn matched with that of Shankar.

On Tuesday, the Court of Additional District and Session Judge Poonam R Joshi held both the maternal uncles guilty under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The maximum punishment in …read more