NEW DELHI: Some caricatures drawn by a 10- year-old abandoned girl depicting her ordeal of being sexually assaulted by her uncle led to his conviction by a Delhi court which said her "so-called saviour" repeatedly ravished her.
In a one-of-its-kind case, the court relied on the sketch drawn by the child with the help of crayon colours on white sheet, given to her during the hearing to keep her busy and focused, showing commission of sexual assault upon her by somebody in her house after undressing her.
The court awarded five years imprisonment to the 45-year- old man, a resident of north west Delhi, for the offence of aggravated sexual assault. It said the girl was subjected to sexual assault by the man, but the assault was not penetrative.
"If the elements of this drawing are considered in the background of facts and circumstances of this case, then commission of sexual assault upon her by somebody in her house after undressing her and the said fact having left impression upon her mind becomes evident. Therefore, I find the child victim to be a competent witness," Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav said.
The court said that a close scrutiny of the drawing through the spectacle of a 89 years old child reveals that she has depicted an abandoned house in gloomy colours, a girl carrying some balloons with intermingled threads and her dress lying removed.
"The plain and simple inference which a person of ordinary prudence, without even having knowledge of facts of this case would make out that the drawing shows a girl child having intermingled relations and the removal of the dress of that child by somebody having created an impression upon her mind and the girl child having distant dream of a house," the court said.
Meanwhile, the court also directed Delhi Legal Service Authority to pay a compensation of Rs three lakh to the child, living in a shelter home, for her welfare and rehabilitation.
The incident dates back to 2014 when the child was brought to the house of one of her aunts, her father's sister, as her father who was a drug addict abandoned her and her siblings after the death of their mother. During her stay at her aunt's place here, she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her uncle who also threatened her not to disclose about his acts to anyone.
When her aunt came to know about it, she sent her to a woman's house who obtained forced labour from the minor who did not like it and left the place.
The court noted that under these circumstances, the girl abandoned the woman's house and started her voyage to an unknown destination with the aim to never return home.
The incident came to light when the child confided in a bus conductor about her ordeal and he informed the police.
Initially, the police was clueless about the address of the man. He was arrested on June 4, 2016 arrest and is in judicial custody since then.
During the trial, the man claimed innocence and said that he was implicated by the child at the instance of the police.
The court also appreciated the efforts of two counsellors of NGO, HAQ Center for Child Rights, in rehabilitating the child and helping the police in getting the address of the man and his subsequent arrest.