Five-year-old girl`s rape: Trial begins, victim`s mother testifies

The trial in the rape case of a five-year-old child allegedly involving two youths today commenced in a Delhi court with the girl`s mother bursting into tears during her testimony.

New Delhi: The trial in the rape case of a five-year-old child allegedly involving two youths on Wednesday commenced in a Delhi court with the girl`s mother bursting into tears during her testimony. The mother got back her composure after being consoled by the judge and lawyers and identified accused Manoj Shah saying he was one of the two who had raped her daughter.

Deposing before Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Garg, the woman said she knows only Manoj as he was their neighbour and she does not know co-accused Pradeep Kumar. The court fixed August 1 for recording statements of the victim and her father in the case. The 23-year-old woman, the first prosecution witness in the case, told the court that her daughter had been missing since April 15 and on the morning of April 17, she was found locked in a room in the same building where they stay. When they broke the lock of the room, where Manoj was staying on rent, the found the minor lying on the ground, crying and she was bleeding, she said. She said there were marks on the child`s neck which supports the police theory that the accused had tried to kill the girl by strangulating and slitting her throat. When the police reached the spot in Gandhi Nagar area of East Delhi, the family members and cops took the child to a hospital where doctors took out pieces of candle and bottle from her body, the woman, whose recording of statement concluded today, said. On being asked by defence counsel R S Juneja if she had any enmity with the accused, the woman replied in negative saying she never had any quarrel with Manoj. The duo are accused of raping the five-year-old girl on April 15. The girl was rescued 40 hours later on April 17 and is under treatment. The accused had fled after committing the crime and were arrested from Bihar, according to police. The woman denied suggestions of the counsel for the accused that Manoj had gone to his native place in Bihar during the time when her daughter was kidnapped and raped. She said her child was found locked in his room and he had done the act with her and left for his village to escape from police after committing the crime. The court had on July 11 framed charges of rape a minor, unnatural offence, kidnapping, attempt to murder, destruction of evidence and wrongful confinement with common intention under IPC against the two accused. The court also framed against them charges of aggravated sexual assault under the newly enacted Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act which entails a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. Charges of rape and unnatural offence were slapped against the two accused by the court on its own as these two sections were not invoked by the police in its charge sheet. PTI