New Delhi, July 18 (IANS): A court here has sentenced a man to 15 years in jail for raping and marrying a woman on the pretext of his being a bachelor and compelling her family to sell off their house.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat, in an order delivered Thursday, sentenced Shiv Shankar Mudgal to 15 years in jail for cheating and raping a woman.
The prosecution told court that Mudgal, 31, won the trust and confidence of the 18-year-old victim and married her in November 2011 but kept his first marriage under wraps.
It was only after four years of marriage that the victim learnt that Mudgal was already married.
The prosecution apprised the court that physical relations were established between Mudgal and the victim on the basis of the former's false misrepresentation of being a bachelor before marrying her.
The victim also gave birth to a girl child.
The prosecution informed the court Mudgal did not stop at that. He compelled the victim's father to sell off his house and took a sum of Rs.12.6 lakh on the assurance of purchasing a flat for living together.
However, Mudgal misappropriated the amount and neither purchased the flat nor returned the money.
"The offences committed by the convict are very serious," Judge Bhat said.
"He has not only ruined the life of the prosecutrix but also brought her parents on the road by compelling them to sell off their house and then taking away wholesale proceeds of the house. They have been constrained to settle in a rented accommodation."
The court awarded Mudgal rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years for raping the victim, five years for cheating her and her family and three years under charges of criminal breach of trust.
The court made it clear that the sentences under charges of cheating and criminal breach of trust will run together after convict finishes the prison term awarded for rape charges. The court also slapped a fine of Rs.2.50 lakh on him.