Hyderabad: Testimonies of two four-year-old girls — rape survivor and her friend — has led a city court to convict 40-year-old man of sexual assault and sentence him to 25 years. The case marks a rare instance of minors’ statements playing a crucial role in securing a conviction.
The girls are now five-and-a-half-years-old and attending school. The survivor, a Dalit, was awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh by XII additional sessions judge T Anitha of Nampally court.
The girls were playing outside their home in Khairatabad in Feb 2023 when the man, who worked as a housekeeping staffer and lived in the same building, called the two into his room. Moments later, he sent one girl out and locked the door with the survivor still inside, police said.
The child who was sent out informed her aunt, who in turn alerted the survivor’s mother. “By the time the two women went to his room, he had raped the child. He had also bit her on the face,” a police officer said. The man was later arrested on a complaint from the child’s mother.
During the trial, the man challenged the case on various grounds. However, the court cited the survivor and her friend’s tender age and rejected arguments questioning the veracity of the children’s testimonies. “There is no contradiction in their statements. The second girl’s statement corroborates that of the survivor and her mother (complainant),” said judge Anitha, ruling that their evidence was trustworthy.
The court also examined other aspects such as panchnama (crime-scene assessment), medical and forensic reports, as well as circumstantial evidence to hold the man guilty.