Nothing more heinous than crime on child by father: HC

NEW DELHI: Nothing can be more heinous than a father ravishing his own child, the Delhi High Court has observed while upholding the life imprisonment awarded to a man for raping and sodomising his nine-year-old daughter.

The high court refused to set aside or modify the jail term imposed on the man by the trial court and dismissed his appeal.

"Nothing can be more heinous than a crime committed on the person of a child by her father, the one who is duty-bound to provide her unflinching protection from all harm," a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Mukta Gupta said in a recent order.

The bench upheld the life imprisonment awarded to the man, a resident of south-west Delhi, by the trial court in February 2013 for the offences of rape and sodomy. The trial court had said the sentence would run concurrently and the man shall not be given any clemency by the state before he spends at least 20 years in jail.

The high court referred to a Supreme Court judgement which was said it was necessary for the courts to have a sensitive approach when dealing with cases of child rape.