Court uphold 10-year sentence for rapist dad (Mumbai, India)

Guess dad BHIKU JADHAV is just going to have to do his time for raping his daughter from the age of 8 to the age of 13, when she finally got pregnant. Notice there is mention of a step. So Daddy either had custody or extensive visitation....

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/hc-upholds-10yr-term-for-rapist-father/903197/


HC upholds 10-yr term for rapist father
MAYURA JANWALKAR

Posted: Jan 24, 2012 at 0020 hrs IST

Mumbai Upholding the conviction of a man who raped his daughter since the time she was eight, the Bombay High Court recently observed, “One who could, taking advantage of age of his daughter, molest his own daughter repeatedly does not deserve to be dealt with leniently.”

Finding no fault with the order of the sessions court that handed out a 10-year prison term to Bhiku Jadhav from a village near Panchgani, Justice M L Tahaliyani wrote in his order that Jadhav “is a person of the nature in whose custody even closest of the female relative was not safe.”

The case of the prosecution was that Jadhav had been sexually abusing his daughter since she was eight years old and slept next to him. However, the girl lodged a police complaint in 2006 when she was pregnant after being repeatedly raped by her father.

The girl, at the age of 13, delivered a baby boy. There was a delay in filing the FIR as the victim was 34-weeks pregnant at that time.

The victim, Additional Public Prosecutor P S Hingorani argued, silently suffered at her father’s instance as he had threatened to poison her if she told her mother about the alleged rape.

However, her step-mother brought her to Mumbai and confiding in her, the victim agreed to lodge a police complaint at the Panchgani police station.

Jadhav was booked under section 376 (punishment for rape) and section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court observed that it is difficult for anybody to find out the reason for non-disclosure on the part of a sexually abused child. “The psychologists have cited many reasons,” Justice Tahaliyani said. He observed that if the child is raped and threatened by its custodian, a child tends to obey, as psychological studies have indicated.

The non-disclosure by a sexually abused child for long time, by itself cannot be a reason to throw away the evidence of sexual abuse if it is otherwise believable, the court said.

The court felt that the account given by the victim was genuine and supported with evidence and statements of other witnesses that included her step-mother as well.