Bengaluru court sentences daily wage worker to 20 years for raping his daughter
A city court in Bengaluru on Wednesday sentenced a daily-wage labourer to 20 years of simple imprisonment for raping his 16-year-old daughter in north Bengaluru. The ruling concluded a three-year legal battle fought entirely by the minor survivor, who stood resolute despite receiving no support from her mother or immediate family.
Along with the prison sentence, Special Judge S Sujata imposed a fine of Rs 1.1 lakh on the convict. The perpetrator, a daily-wage labourer hailing from Bihar, has been lodged in the Bengaluru Central Prison since his arrest in June 2023.
The survivor, who was the eldest of four children, had previously dropped out of school after Class IX. She had temporarily moved to a relative's house in Uttar Pradesh because her father repeatedly pressured her to get married.
The family later travelled to Bihar for rituals following the death of the convict's mother. During the trip, the father promised the girl he would stop coercing her into marriage, which prompted her to return to Bengaluru with him.
However, on the night of June 27, 2023, the father returned home in a highly intoxicated state. Under the pretext of conducting a "test" to see if she had an affair while in Uttar Pradesh, he raped her.
When the father left the house later that night to fetch dinner, the girl fled and hid in a nearby park overnight. The following morning, she spotted a parked autorickshaw and pleaded with the driver to take her to the nearest police station, where she filed a formal complaint.
The jurisdictional police arrested the accused and placed the survivor in a state-run women's shelter. When police contacted the mother, she refused to travel to Bengaluru or attend court proceedings, choosing instead to reprimand her daughter for registering the case.
Public prosecutor P Krishnaveni commended the teenager's mental fortitude during the trial, stating that the survivor stood firm despite zero family backing. The survivor, now 19 years old, is currently working as a tailor.
