Ex-DDU hospital staff sentenced to 5 yrs RI for raping woman in 2021

New Delhi : A court here has sentenced a 53-year-old former staff of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital to rigorous imprisonment for five years for raping a differently-abled woman in October 2021.

Additional Sessions Judge Aanchal was hearing arguments on sentencing against the man, who was earlier convicted under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 376 C (sexual intercourse by a person in authority).

The woman had gone to the hospital to get her disability certificate and the accused while taking her X-ray inserted his finger into the victim’s private parts causing injuries and partially rupturing her hymen, the prosecution said. In its verdict dated September 6, the court said, “It is the well-settled law that it is not possible to have any cut and dry formula relating to imposition of sentence but the object of sentencing should be to see that the crime does not go unpunished and the victim of crime as also the society has the satisfaction that justice has been done to and in imposing sentence.”

“It has not been the case that the convict had been in a state of mental stress or trauma or the offence was committed by him by any compulsion but the offence was committed by the convict breaching the privacy of the prosecutrix who was physically challenged,” it added.

The court, however, said that the aggravating circumstances needed to be balanced with the mitigating circumstances and the prospects of the convict getting reformed.

“As on date, the convict is about 53 years in age. He has already lost his job from the hospital. He spent more than one year in custody during trial and nothing adverse to him was ever reported to this court and on his release on bail, he had been appearing regularly,” the court said. It sentenced the convict to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for five years along with Rs 5,000 fine.