Chandigarh: In a rape case of five-year-old girl, hearing the appeal by the a mother-son duo who was convicted in the case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court observed that mothers in India treat their “precious sons as raja betas” no matter how “imperfect or villainous” they might be or how grievous the crime they committed, according to a report by The Indian Express.
“Unfortunately, in this part of India, family members, especially mothers, often have such blind love for their ‘precious’ sons that, no matter how imperfect or villainous they might be, they are still regarded as ‘Raja Betas’,” TIE quoted the court's observation.
The court of Justices Anoop Chitkara and Sukhvinder Kaur awarded the man a 30-year jail term and a fine of Rs 30 lakh, which the convict must pay the victim’s family.
In the 2018 case, the minor girl was raped and murdered by her father’s employee. The convict had been working with the victim’s father for around five to six years. As per the case, the convict took the girl to his home and raped her before killing her with a kitchen knife. He hid the child’s body in a large kitchen container.
There was CCTV footage which showed the accused taking the girl with him. Her body was later found at the convict’s home. The convict’s mother did not let the family members of the child into her home first when they went there in search of the child.
The convict was charged under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 366 (Kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc), 363 (kidnapping), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the IPC, and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
His mother was charged under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage, etc), 363 (kidnapping), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender).
A trial court had sentenced the convict to capital punishment and his mother to seven years in prison, but the High Court reduced his sentence and acquitted the mother of all charges.