Rejecting the plea that silence of a victim should be construed as her consent, a Budgam court Wednesday, sentenced one Abdul Aziz Dar, to five years in prison besides imposing a fine of 10,000 rupees for repeatedly raping a minor working in his carpet weaving factory.
The victim was working in Dar’s carpet weaving factory, where he raped her for one year.
The rapist Abdul Aziz Dar, son of Mohammad Akbar Dar of Najan Beerwah Budgam taking advantage of the poor victim’s immaturity raped her till she conceived.
The victim’s family came to know about the plight of their daughter only after changes associated with pregnancy became evident in her body.
According to the father of the victim, ”My daughter who is mentally retarded, was asked by his employer Aziz Dar to stay back during recess and in the absence of other workers exploited her. We came to know only after when my daughter underwent the changes in the body.”
The victim’s father lodged a case in Police Station Beerwah on April 28, 2007. Police registered the case under FIR number 50/07 and concluded the investigations on May 10.
Principal Sessions Judge Budgam, Hasnian Masoodi, rejected the defence plea that the silence of the victim should be construed as her consent and held that submission of an unsuspecting victim, a young girl of low intelligence quotient to sexual exploitation by her master could not be a substitute for the consent to the sexual intercourse.
The court held that the consent attributed to a victim of rape has to be a conscious and voluntary act and that non-resistance or passive giving in of a victim having mental deficiency does not amount to consent.
The judgement came in a record time of five months. The trial commenced on 23rd May, 2007 and concluded on 23rd October, 2007.