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Consensual Sex With Minor: A Delhi court has convicted a man of raping a teenage girl.
The case dates back to January 2015 when the accused, now a convict, raped a 14-year-old girl. The court observed that “if physical relations are established with a minor, it becomes an offence of rape and her consent is immaterial”.
The order was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge Amit Sahrawat who was hearing a case against the man who was charged under the penal provision of rape and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Vineet Dahiya, the Special Public Prosecutor was representing the prosecution.
The “consistent” and “reliable” statements of the girl about becoming pregnant and later giving birth because of having voluntarily established physical relations with the accused were noted by the court.
The court rejected the defence lawyer’s argument that the girl was a major at the time of the incident as it said that according to the evidence before it, she was around 14 years old.
“The defence has already admitted the case of the prosecution to the extent of physical relations, thus if physical relations are established with a minor girl, then it is squarely covered by the definition of rape and penetrative sexual assault, and the consent of the victim is immaterial,” the court said adding that according to the DNA profiling, the accused was the baby’s biological father.
“The forensic science laboratory (FSL) report fortifies the case of the prosecution that the accused has established physical relations with the victim and as a consequence of that, the victim got pregnant and gave birth to a child,” it said.
It said that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Accordingly, the accused is found guilty of the offence of rape and aggravated penetrative sexual assault,” the court said.
The arguments on the quantum of sentence will be heard later.
(With PTI inputs)
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