Jammu:
A local court on Saturday awarded seven year sentence to a man for raping a woman on the pretext of marriage in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir, an official said. Additional session judge Udhampur, S R Gandhi pronounced the judgment after hearing the additional public prosecutor Anil Kumar Magotra for the state, and counsel for the accused and the material on record, the official said.
Surinder Singh, a resident of Kotli Jija village of Udhampur, was arrested after the woman lodged a written complaint at Rehmbal Police Station on December 7, 2011, alleging that the accused had called her and when she met him, he outraged her modesty and also threatened her not to tell anyone about the incident. The victim also claimed that Singh afterwards repeatedly made physical relations with her with a promise to marry her, the official said.
On the basis of the report, an FIR was registered and the accused was arrested after thorough investigation. Later, the charge sheet was presented in the court of Additional District and session judge court, Udhampur. The court sentenced the accused to seven year imprisonment, observing that a woman’s body is not a man’s plaything and he cannot take advantage of it in order to satisfy his lust and desires by fooling her into consenting to sexual intercourse simply because he wants to indulge in it, the official said. “Keeping in mind the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of this case, it is ordered that for the commission of offence under Section 376 of the RPC, the convict shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and a fine of Rs 5,000,” the official said quoting the judgment.
“For the commission of offence under Section 417 of the RPC the convict shall further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and a fine of Rs 2,000,” the official said. The court said both the sentences would run concurrently. “In default of payment of fine, the convict shall further undergo imprisonment for six months,” the court said. The official said the convict was arrested on December 8, 2011 and later released on bail on January 3, 2012.
The period of detention already undergone would be set off from the sentence awarded to the convict, he said, adding the court also ordered a copy of judgment to the Chairman District Legal Service Authority, Udhampur with the request to consider this case for compensation to the victim..
