Man convicted of rape gets 15-year jail term

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sentenced a man to 15 years’ imprisonment for raping a differently-abled minor girl five years ago.The man, Chattu Lal, was arrested after the incident in August 2013 and has been in jail for the last five years.

The high court upheld a trial court's verdict holding the man guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl and awarding him 15 years in jail. Justice Anu Malhotra said there was no infirmity in the verdict of the trial court convicting the man of the offence of penetrative sexual assault on the child under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The court also passed a slew of directions for the man's remaining jail term so that the sentence "acts as a deterrent" and is simultaneously reformative with a prospect of rehabilitation.

It directed the concerned superintendent of jail, where the convict is lodged, to "consider ensuring appropriate correctional courses through meditation therapy, educational opportunity, vocational training and skill development programme to enable a livelihood option and an occupational status".

The superintendent shall consider a programme for shaping of post-release rehabilitation programme for the convict well in advance before the date of his release to make him self-dependent and ensuring his protection from getting associated with anti–social groups, agencies of moral hazards like gambling dens, drinking places and brothels and with demoralised and deprived persons, the court said.

It said, adequate counselling be provided to sensitise him and to make him understand why he is in prison and to conduct psychometric tests to measure the reformation taking place. He would be allowed to meet with his family members as per the jail rules, it said.

An FIR was lodged on the complaint by the victim's mother that on August 14, 2013, her two daughters were playing outside the house and after sometime, she noticed that the victim was not there.