Kerala High Court upholds 20-year jail term for man convicted of repeatedly raping 12-year-old niece

The Kerala High Court recently upheld the conviction and 20-year prison sentence of a man for repeatedly raping his 12-year-old niece after allegedly threatening her with a video of her changing clothes and bathing.

Justice A Badharudeen dismissed the convict's appeal against a June 2024 trial court verdict convicting him of rape, aggravated penetrative sexual assault and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act).

The appellant had primarily challenged his conviction by pointing to omissions and variations in the child survivor's testimony.

However, the Court observed that the testimony was of sterling quality and supported by medical evidence.

"On scrutiny of the evidence of PW1 (survivor), the same appears to be of sterling quality to be relied upon and the contra contention raised by the learned counsel for the appellant is liable to be rejected, since it is well settled in law that in sexual molestation case the evidence of the victim, if found to be of sterling quality, the same can be the sole basis of conviction," the Court said.

The convict/ appellant, who was the survivor's maternal uncle, had been booked for sexually assaulting the survivor on several occasions in 2021, by threatening her and claiming that he possessed a video of her changing clothes and bathing.

He allegedly threatened that he would show the video to others unless she spoke to him and maintained a relationship with him.

The child, believing his claim, began communicating with him and the appellant. He eventually subjected her to sexual assault on several occasions. The prosecution stated that he used to visit the child's house at night to sexually assault her.

The crime came to light in December 2021 after the child disclosed the sexual assault incidents to her family, following which her father lodged a complaint with the police.

A trial court convicted the accused man for house-trespass, kidnapping and rape under IPC as well as aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the POCSO Act.

He then filed an appeal before the High Court challenging this verdict. The appellant primarily questioned the credibility of the child's testimony by pointing at alleged omissions and variations between her evidence before the trial court and her statement recorded before a magistrate.

He had also relied on the fact that the child's parents did not narrate all the alleged acts of sexual assault while giving their statements.

The Court, however, found that the child's statement before the magistrate contained details of the assault which were consistent with her testimony before the trial court an corroborated by medical evidence.

It also noted that the parents had no direct knowledge of the incidents and knew about them only from what the child had disclosed. Thus, the absence of certain details in the parents' versions could not be used to discredit the child's testimony, the Court held.

Accordingly, the High Court confirmed the conviction and sentence imposed on the accused by the special court.

Advocate Vivek Venugopal appeared for the accused.

Senior public prosecutor Sajeev PK represented the state. 

[Read Judgment]