Mumbai: The Bombay high court upheld 10 years’ imprisonment to a trader who raped two girls, one of them a minor at the time of the incident.
The petitioner contended that there was consent from the girl and the prosecution did not establish the age of the minor during the incident.
According to the prosecution, in 2011, Narsi Katira, a shop owner based in Mulund, employed the two sisters. He first raped the elder sister and made a video of the incident. He then blackmailed them using the video and raped both of them.
Local activists got wind of the matter, so they took the girls into confidence and brought them to the police station to register a FIR. The police arrested Katira when the girls narrated the whole incident to the police.
In May 2015, an additional sessions Judge convicted Katira for raping the sisters and sentenced him to 10 years in jail. Katira then challenged the said conviction in the high court.
Justice A.M. Badar noted that the prosecution had proved that the you-nger sister had not even completed 16 years of age when the incident took place and therefore, she had not reached the consenting age. Hence, the argument that the physic-al relationships were consensual was not accepted.
Justice Badar also took note of the fact that the medical report also supported the prosecution’s case that Katira raped both the sisters several times.
The high court upheld his conviction under IPC section 376 and awarded a 10-year jail term to him.
