A man has been convicted on charges of rape, cruelty and harassment against his wife. The court held that even though there is no penal provision for charging a man with the rape of his wife, the accused and victim were first cousins and had committed rape on her even before marriage, making it “incestuous”.

The court also stated that the man not only tortured the women after marriage but also raped her, who is his first cousin, for more than 12 years before marriage and forced her to marry him. The man was sentenced to a seven year jail term by the court.

Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau, while holding Interpret Singh guilty under Section 376 (rape) of IPC, stated that, this is not a case were the accused has been accused of raping his own wife for over 12 years but a case where he had been accused of raping his first cousin when she was a minor below the age of 15 years and compelled to marry the accused on account of long term physical relations which he had made with the prosecutrix.

The court took a stern view of child abuse in its order, as the victim was raped even as minor. It was stated by the victim to the court that, she was compelled to marry her cousin in March 2008 after she became pregnant and after marriage her husband began physically assaulting and subjecting her to mental cruelty. She also alleged that Singh had been raping her since 1996 when she was just 15 years of age. And as per prosecution, Singh, 37, and the victim were living in a joint family and he used to teach her when she was preparing for her class 10^th board exams.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs.1.05lakh on Singh, while sentencing the accused to three-year jail term for harassment, stipulating that the amount should be given to the victim.

Report by Sharika