KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has observed that recounting the incident of rape is an extremely humiliating experience for a woman and if she is a victim of a sex crime, she will blame no one else but the real culprit.
The observation came as the court dismissed the appeal filed by two persons to quash the sentence awarded to them in a Pocso case for the rape of an eight-year-old girl in 2009. The court also rejected the plea of one of the accused persons that he was falsely implicated due to a family feud.
On the counsel’s argument that there was undue delay in reporting the matter to the police, the court said such a delay in the case of sexual assault could not be equated with the delay in a case involving other offences as several factors weigh on the mind of the victim and her family.
“In a tradition-bound society like ours, particularly in rural areas, it will be unsafe to throw out the prosecution case merely on the ground that there was a delay in lodging the FIR,” the court said.
As per the prosecution, Babumon and Syam, who were convicted in the case, had taken the girl to their houses and subjected her to rape and unnatural sex multiple times in September 2009.
The doctor had deposed that the victim had accused the duo of sexually abusing her. The court said the assault took place at the convicts’ homes when nobody was there. So, there were no witnesses.
However, the victim’s statement was found to be genuine and could be relied upon to prove the incident and fix culpability on the accused, the court said.