New Delhi: A Delhi court has sentenced a 29-year-old man to life imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a 10-year-old girl, and observed that the society has no sympathy for the victims of sexual assault and they are "kept at a distance".
Additional sessions judge Seema Maini convicted Ram Singh for the offences under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The court imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict, half of which is to be paid to the rape survivor's family.
"Over the past few years, our country has made remarkable growth and progress in all spheres. But, it is saddening that on the social and emotional front, our society continues to be rigid and unrelenting," the court said in a recent order.
"It has no sympathy or even empathy for a rape victim. A victim of rape, as in olden times, is treated as an untouchable and is kept at a distance by one and all. The victim herself, more often than not, loses confidence, self-esteem and a sense of one's own worth. The offence of rape becomes omnipresent in the victim's life," the court said in a recent order.
"The victim's life becomes lifeless, only because of the lust of the offender. Such offenders do not deserve any sympathy or leniency," it said.
According to the prosecution, in 2015 when the girl was going to her friend's house to play, Singh along with two others had kidnapped her by gagging her and making her unconscious with the help of a stupefying substance. They took her to a nearby room where they confined her by locking it from outside.
When her parents came looking for her and broke open the door of the room, she said she was raped by the accused.
The court also directed the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to grant a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the rape survivor.
The accused claimed innocence in court and said that he was falsely implicated.
Read: INX Media case: ED moves Delhi court seeking production warrant of Chidambaram
