A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, on Thursday, sentenced a 65-year-old man to life in prison for repeatedly raping his 32-year-old daughter since she was a teenager and sexually assaulting his 11-year-old granddaughter in 2017.
Special judge Rekha N Pandhare also ordered him to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to his daughter, a domestic help, and Rs 25,000 to his granddaughter, who used to study in Class IV at the time of the incident. Special Public Prosecutor Veena Shelar said the man would not let his daughter live separately with her husband and would continue to keep sexual relations with her even after marriage, due to which two of her marriages had fallen apart.
The daughter in her testimony told the court that her father had started exploiting her sexually since she was 15 years old. As per the police complaint, her daughter had refused to go to the grandfather’s home from where they had moved out. When she took her daughter in confidence, the child had told her that when she was asleep during a visit, her grandfather (who she called aaba) had taken her under his blanket, touched her inappropriately and also made her indulge in a sexual act. A few days after her daughter had told her about this incident, when she had visited her home, her father had raped her again by threatening to kill her and her children if she did not submit to him. She had revealed her ordeal to a neighbour, who had urged her to approach the police and the complaint came to be lodged.
In her testimony in court, the child said that she was playing outside home once and had seen through the window her grandfather undressing her mother. They had then shifted out of the house.
