Delhi HC upholds man’s jail term for sexually assaulting niece.

Source – indianexpress.com

A minor girl’s sketch of a house, a girl carrying balloons and a dress lying beside her, had convinced a Delhi court to convict the man who allegedly sexually assaulted her. The accused, who is the victim’s uncle, was awarded five years’ rigorous imprisonment in 2017.

Dismissing the appeal filed by the accused against the verdict on Monday, the Delhi High Court said it did not concur with the trial court’s conviction based on the victim’s sketches.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru was of the opinion that the “testimony of the child is quite clear and there is no doubt that the appellant had sexually assaulted the child”.

“The contention that the child had implicated the appellant because he used to scold her is unpersuasive. The child has clearly described the sexual assault committed on her; this court is unable to accept that the child of such tender years could have conceived of a devious plan for making such vile allegations to implicate a close relative only because he would scold her and compel her to do her school work,” it added. Justice Bakhru observed that there is “much merit in the appellant’s contention that the inference drawn by the trial court on the basis of the sketch drawn by the child is unwarranted”.

“This did not, in any manner, indicate that the child had an intermingled relation, or any inference of commission of a sexual assault could be drawn by the said sketch…,” said the court.

During the proceedings before the trial court, the girl was given paper and crayons. She began sketching an abandoned house, a girl holding balloons and a dress lying beside her.

The trial court judge had regarded the sketches as the victim’s impression of her ordeal: “If the elements of this drawing are considered…commission of sexual assault upon her… becomes evident.”