HC upholds man’s life sentence for sexually assaulting 4-yr-old daughter

Noting that sexual abuse of a child was the exploitation of its innocence, the Madras High Court refused to show any lenience to a man who was awarded life imprisonment by the Mahila Court, Coimbatore, for sexually assaulting his daughter.

Dismissing the appeal moved by the man, a division bench comprising Justice PN Prakash and Justice R Hemalatha said, “Sexual assault of a child, that too by her own father, is even more serious and deserves no leniency. It is a matter of shame that grounds are invented to save the appellant when the child’s statements have pinned him.

“This is just a tip of the iceberg and therefore such crimes deserve the maximum punishment with no leniency to be shown,” the court held, adding: “Any act of sexual abuse on a child is nothing but exploitation of the innocence.” The extract of the evidence in the case was heart-wrenching, the court said and cited one instance that happened on October 23, 2015, when the child was heard asking her doll if it was weeping because her father had placed his male organ on her genitals, anus, and mouth. “The damage caused to the psyche of the victim child is devastating and, in many cases, irreversible too,” the court lamented.

It directed the man to surrender before the Mahila Court, failing which the trial court should take steps to secure him.

The court also set aside submissions that the child was tutored by her grandmother and therefore it could not be relied upon. “This contention also is on a weak premise because the deposition of the victim before the trial court is more than sufficient, and the fact that she withstood the testimony of cross-examination clearly reveals she has not been tutored and she has only told the truth in her own language with all innocence and oblivious of the seriousness and consequence of the crime committed by her own father,” the bench recorded in its order.

“Even her language and innocence remained unadulterated. She had no ill-feeling or hatred towards her father,” the court added while noting that this ground did not carry any conviction and deserved to be trashed.