Two men, charged with raping two minor sisters were sentenced to six months' RI for eve-teasing even after the victims turned hostile.
NEW DELHI: Two men, charged with raping two minor sisters last year, could not escape the clutches of law even after the victims turned hostile and denied their sexual assault, as a court here sentenced them to six months' rigorous imprisonment for eve-teasing and making obscene gestures at them.
"An offender can be punished for a lesser offence without being charged for the same when he faces trial for a graver offence," Additional Sessions Judge RK Yadav held while acquitting the duo of the rape charge but convicting them for insulting the modesty of the girls.
Relying on the unchallenged testimony of the two girls, who, though retraced from their earlier statement against convicts Dalbir Singh and Sukhbir Singh, the court said that the accused used to tease the sisters and whistled at them.
The judge declined to release them on probation.
"Offence committed by them is of alarming complexion as they used to tease and whistle at the minors with intent to insult their modesty," the court observed, while sentencing them under Section 509 (word or gesture with intent to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.
Observing that it was probably the societal pressure and fear that persuaded the girls to resile from their earlier stand, it held that their testimony could not be discarded altogether and that the offenders must be punished for their
illegal acts.
As per the complaint lodged with Mandawali Police Station, the two men had on November one, last year, had sexually asssaulted the two sisters at their relative's house where the girls used to work as domestic help.
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