24-YR-OLD VICTIM HAD BEEN IMPREGNATED, ATTENDS HEARING WITH 10-MONTH-OLD BOY IN HER ARMS
CHANDIGARH : Nearly two years after a 24-year-old woman was raped and impregnated on the pretext of marriage, a local court held a 25-year-old Indian Navy naik guilty on Tuesday.
Breathing a sigh of relief, the woman — who was in court with her baby, now 10-month old — said she has finally got justice.
Additional district and sessions judge Poonam R Joshi will pronounce the quantum of sentence on Thursday.
Vijender Singh, 25, of Himachal Pradesh posted in Visakhapatnam, was arrested in September 2017 on the complaint of a woman who alleged he forcibly had sexual intercourse with her in a hotel in Sector 45, Chandigarh, in July that year.
This happened twice, according to the FIR, following which the woman found she was pregnant. Despite the woman urging him to marry her, he didn’t agree and instead bullied and pressurised her to abort the foetus. His family too told the woman to undergo abortion in lieu of compensation, it was alleged.
Two-and-a-half-month pregnant, she filed a complaint with Chandigarh Police on September 24, 2017, which led to Vijender’s arrest. He was booked under Sections 376 (rape) and 420 (breach of trust and cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
WOMAN VICTIMISED, ABANDONED BY KIN Abandoned by her parents after her pregnancy came to light, the young mother from a small hilly town said the past two years had been rather tedious for her.
Once a data-entry operator with a firm in Chandigarh, she said she not only lost her job but also support of her own family. After initially staying at the Nari Niketan, she moved to and has been residing at a shelter in Sector 43 as its management was willing to take the responsibility of both the mother and child.
The DNA matching conducted by the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, had established Vijender’s paternity.
Even as the defence counsel argued that the two had been in a relationship and the act was consensual, court found Vijender guilty of rape.
“Ab kehta hai baccha chahiye, pehle kehta tha shadi nahi karoonga chahe jail rehna pade (Now, he says he wants the child. Earlier, he used to say he won’t marry me even if he has to stay in jail),” said the woman, adding that he was keen on marrying another woman instead of her.
Sharing how the baby — who was fast asleep when the verdict was announced and was now awake and clinging to his mother — resembled his father, the woman said she would never hand him over to Vijender.