Man gets 10-yr jail for raping woman in garb of helping her

New Delhi: A 32-year-old man has been sent to jail for 10 years by a Delhi court for raping a woman, taking advantage of her vulnerability after she sought his help regarding sexual assault committed by an ex-employer.

The court lamented the plight of the woman, a maid, who was raped in Amritsar by her former employer's father-in-law for five years and ravished again after she had approached a placement agency for help.

"Considering the testimony of prosecutrix as a whole, chain of sequence and her conduct, I am of the opinion that testimony of the prosecutrix is reliable, clear, cogent and unambiguous. The prosecution has proved its case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt," Additional Sessions Judge Shail Jain said while holding the man guilty of raping and threatening the victim.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on the man and said Rs 50,000 out of this amount should be given to the victim as compensation.

According to the prosecution, the woman after coming to Delhi from her village, was employed as a maid in Amritsar through a placement agency run by one Salmi and her husband.

While in Amritsar, the woman was repeatedly raped by the father-in-law of her employer for five years but she could not report the matter to police there. She reported it to Salmi after she came to Delhi, it said.

On the pretext of helping her, the placement agent introduced her to the accused man who took undue advantage and raped her in 2011, the prosection said, adding that the man threatened the victim not to disclose it.

After some time, she lodged a complaint against the man with the help of an NGO at Moti Nagar police station in west Delhi.

During trial, the man claimed innocence and said he was falsely implicated. But the court said he has not been able to prove his point.