A Delhi court has sentenced a youth to ten years' rigorous imprisonment for raping a woman and forcefully marrying her, saying he had "trapped" her and the marriage between them "should not come in the way of holding the accused guilty".
The court also sentenced his mother to seven years' imprisonment for abetting the rape and threatening to kill the victim if she resisted.
"It appears that the victim consented to marry the youth only because of the rape incident and therefore it cannot be taken that the marriage between them nullifies the incident of rape," Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhatt said, adding the offence of rape is "not compoundable".
"The marriage was only for namesake and a tool for him to keep the woman under his control. Thus, in my opinion, the marriage between them should not come in the way of holding the accused guilty," the judge said.
The court handed down the jail terms to the youth and his mother, residents of west Delhi, for the offences of rape (section 376), abetment of rape (376/109) and criminal intimidation (506) under the IPC.
Refusing to take a lenient view towards them, it also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 each on the mother-son duo and directed them to pay it as compensation to the woman.
"The youth had married the woman only to keep her under his control and to satiate his sexual lust upon her. The crime committed by him is extremely abhorrent and serious. He does not deserve any leniency," the court said.
Taking a stern view towards his mother, the court said that being a woman she did not get moved by the tears of the victim. "The tears and entreaties of the victim did not move her despite the fact that she herself is a lady. A young girl was being ravished brutally by her son and another person. Instead of coming to her rescue, she aided them in commission of their nefarious acts...," it said.
While convicting the duo, the court also noted that the youth had trapped the 20-year-old woman in a love affair and after intoxicating her, raped her at his residence in the presence of his mother, who encouraged him in committing the offence.
Terming the marriage between the youth and the victim as "an eye-wash", the court said, "the victim married him thinking that it will be difficult for her to find a suitable match when she had already been ravished by him and expected that he would prove a good and caring life partner for her but that was not to be."
The court also noted that the youth and the victim "never resided as husband-wife and never fulfilled any matrimonial obligation towards each other".
According to the prosecution, the woman had lodged a complaint on December 12, 2011 that the youth befriended her when she was studying in one of the NIITs here in 2008. He called her at his residence on January 21, 2010 and made her consume a sedative-laced drink after which she fell unconscious.
He then raped her in the presence of his mother and another friend, who is still at large, and video recorded the sexual act, it said. Threatening to expose her pictures and video, he forced her to marry her and continued to rape and blackmail her, it added.
It further said that the youth harassed the woman with the support of his mother, who had threatened her to do whatever she was being asked to do or otherwise, they would kill her. The youth and his mother, however, denied the allegations saying that whatever had happened was with the consent of the woman.
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