Vishal Khajania had continually raped his domestic help at his house in Mumbai, after the woman got pregnant, he went back on his promise of marriage, leading her family to lodge an FIR
A Mumbai sessions court on Thursday convicted Vishal Khajania, 24, in a rape case and sent him to prison for seven years, while acquitting his brother, Pinto Khajania, who was also named as an accused in the case. The judgment in the case came a year after the trial began, and was given by special women’s court judge, A S Shende.
Vishal was punished under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and was directed to pay Rs 1 lakh as fine, of which Rs 50,000 would be given to the survivor and the other half to her son, who was borne from the convict.
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Public prosecutor Kalpana Hire, who examined nine witnesses, said, “Vishal earlier kept saying that the child (now two years old) is not his, but DNA reports have proved that he is the father of the child.
On the day of conviction, he finally accepted that it was his child, and so the court reduced his punishment to seven years in jail. The court has also asked the government to give some money to the victim as she is very poor.”
The survivor, who is 35 and worked as a house help, used to stay with her sister and mother in Maharashtra Nagar in Mankhurd, after her husband died seven years ago of cancer.
In June 2010, the survivor’s sister gave her a house at Khairne, Turbhe, which she owned, so the survivor could stay with her seven-year-old son. Vishal and his brother Pinto stayed in the same area where the survivor had shifted. Vishal hired her as a domestic help.
One day, Vishal forced himself on her. The survivor told her sister and mother about the incident, after which Vishal and his brother told them that Vishal would marry her. During Navratri in 2010, after the survivor told Vishal that she was pregnant, he took her to a hospital for abortion, but the doctor refused to do it citing complications.
During all this time, Vishal kept raping her on the promise of marriage. He also beat her up and abused her, threatening to kill her 7-year-old son if she told anyone. When the neighbours suggested that she should run away from Vishal, she thought of going to her uncle in Satara, but instead went to an ashram in Malvadi near Satara.
She stayed there for a month and half. When her uncle got to know, he brought her back to her sister. After they got to know about Vishal’s sexual assaults on the pretext of marrying her, they went to the police station on December 25, 2012 and registered an FIR against him and his brother.
The complaint was registered under section 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 405 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
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