SHILLONG, May 12: A trial court’s judgement convicting a rapist to 15 years imprisonment and Rs. 20,000 fine for raping his eight-year-old sister-in-law in 2013 was upheld by a division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya on Thursday. The bench comprised Chief justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh.
The trial court had sentenced the rapist in August 2018, however, the convict appealed before the High Court against the trial court’s judgement.
The victim was raped on three occasions by her then brother-in-law. However, the minor first did not report the matter out of fear and finally did so before her sister who had done away with her relationship with her husband.
“What counts at the end of the day is the credibility of the allegations levelled by the victim and the manner of the presentation thereof. The trial court found that the allegations were genuine and there was no motive that the girl child had to falsely implicate her sister’s husband in the commission of such a heinous offence,” observed the division bench.
“Here was a girl who had been raped by a dear relative and she had been threatened to be killed if she revealed the matter to anyone,” it stated further.
Based on the evidence provided and the statement of the victim, the High Court said there was “credible evidence of the victim and her clear description of the three incidents.” “The appellant’s failure to suggest any alibi or have any plausible answer, the trial court was perfectly justified in finding the appellant guilty. As a consequence, the judgment of conviction of August 3, 2018 and the sentence pronounced thereupon on August 8, 2018 do not call for any interference,” the bench said.
