HC rejects medical student's plea to suspend 10-yr jail term for digital rape

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Mahavir Mishra, a 21-year-old MBBS student was sentenced to 10 years jail by the Bombay High Court for digitally raping a 10-year-old girl at his home.

According to a report by The Times of India, the HC has refused to grant him any leniency in the matter, despite his lawyers claiming that he has been falsely implicated. The incident apparently took place on August 6, 2014.

The survivor had visited the accused's house to meet his sister, when the former's mother asked her to wait in the terrace as her daughter had gone out. Mishra, who was also present at the terrace, committed the offense, after asking the girl to sit on his lap. An FIR was registered with the police after the minor went crying home and narrated the incident to her mother.

Although the accused's lawyers claimed he was innocent and pointed out the absence of any corroborative evidence in the case, they were told by the court that the medical evidence did not rule out sexual assault.

Mishra was found guilty by a trial court on June 2016, for aggravated penetrative sexual assault. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment as per the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

The judge, Justice Anant Badar, who rejected Mishra's plea to suspend the sentence, firmly stated that the accused could not be falsely accused for such a heinous act by the family and that the nature of the crime committed needs to be kept in mind.