Shamli (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 5 (IANS): A 48-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court for raping his daughter, 15, during lockdown last year.

Additional sessions judge (ADJ) Mumtaz Ali, also the special judge of POCSO court in Shamli, observed that a father raping his daughter is a 'heinous' crime which sends a bad message to the society.

The case was registered on the complaint of the accused's wife, who told the court that she 'dealt with abuses and torture for years after her marriage but could not bear what her daughter was going through'.

The girl's mother said that she was a victim of 'domestic violence since the day of marriage'.

She told the police that her husband never allowed their six daughters to complete education and married two of them while they were in their teens.

She further said, "I cried all night when my daughter told me about what happened to her. In the morning, the first thing I did was to call the police. I faced taunts from my in-laws. Even the neighbours did not spare me. I stood up to all this for the next 16 months. All I want is severe punishment for my husband."

Special public prosecutor O.P. Kaushik told reporters, "The mother of the girl had filed a complaint at Thana Bhawan police station on April 29, 2020. She was sleeping with her daughters in a room when her husband, at around three in the night, called the 15-year-old girl on the pretext of massaging his feet, saying he was in pain. Then he committed the crime and threatened her not to disclose it to anyone."

The Shamli police had registered the case under IPC sections 377 (carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman, or animal) and 506 (criminal intimidation) and under relevant sections of the POCSO Act, the government lawyer said.

"The case took long as the court remained closed for months amid pandemic. We produced seven witnesses in this case, including the daughters and wife of the accused," he said.