When the 13-year-old girl first told her mother about it in 2022, her mother didn’t believe her. But then she decided to test the girl’s story: she hid a mobile phone in the bedroom, turned on the camera, and walked out of the house. When the camera recorded her husband sexually assaulting their child, she filed a police complaint at the Women’s police station in Faridabad’s Ballabgarh.
Four years later, a Faridabad court on Wednesday sentenced the man to 20 years in prison after the girl deposed against her father during trial and the prosecution produced the video clip recorded on the hidden phone. Additional sessions judge Abhishek Phutela sentenced the man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and ₹ 50,000 fine under Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, five years rigorous imprisonment under Section 10 (punishment for aggravated sexual assault), and two years imprisonment and a fine of ₹ 10,000 under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code and one year of imprisonment and a fine of ₹ 10,000 under Section 25 of the Arms Act.
Yashpal Yadav, public relations officer of Faridabad police, said the case was registered on the mother’s complaint and the man arrested. “In the course of investigation, it came to light that the man had sexually assaulted the minor daughter multiple times and would assault her to scare her so that she didn’t reveal anything to the mother,” Yadav said. He said the case was monitored by senior prosecution and police officers in view of the sensitive nature of the offence.
“The prosecution examined 24 witnesses during the course of the trial whose depositions in favour of the case and the evidence on record helped in securing the conviction against the father,” he said.
