Man gets 10-year jail term for raping woman with schizophrenia | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: The sessions court has sentenced a 55-year-old resident of Thane to ten years of imprisonment for raping a 24-year-old woman with schizophrenia while she was roaming on a platform at Dadar railway station in May 2019. The labourer had taken her to his place in Diva, by promising to take her to an orphanage in the city.

The woman had been residing at multiple orphanages since her childhood, and in 2019, left a home of a charitable trust in Nalasopara and started living at another home in Saki Naka. In Saki Naka, she was told about an ashram in Pune, following which she took a train and reached Dadar to go to Pune.

According to the prosecution, while waiting at the station, the convict, Raju Raipuram, promised to take the woman to an orphanage in the city. Later, he took her to his place in Diva, where he raped her, after which he took her to the ashram in Pune. However, the woman left the ashram after seven days and reached Andheri, where she was spotted by the police.

A medical examination revealed that she was six weeks pregnant, following which an FIR was registered against Raipuram at the Dadar police station and he was arrested.

The woman testified before the trial court that Raipuram came up to her at Dadar, promising to put her in an ashram, after which he took her to his home after initially searching for an orphanage in the city. She told the court that he threatened to assault her with a knife if she screamed.

The defence challenged the identity of the accused, submitting that the prosecution had not produced any CCTV footage of him at Dadar railway station. It also contended that the birth certificate of the child born to the woman was not brought on record.

The court, while observing that the case was led by clinching medical evidence, said that the investigation had been done in a fair manner. The DNA report proved that the accused was the biological father of the newborn baby, it added.

“He could not have been found to be the biological parent of the child unless and until he had sexual relations with the complainant, leading to her pregnancy… Accordingly, it is held that the accused repeatedly committed rape on the complainant,” held additional sessions judge Gauri Kawdikar in an order passed on March 4.

However, the court said that the prosecution failed to prove kidnapping charges against the man since the woman did not testify that she was taken against her will. The court sentenced him to ten years of imprisonment and directed him to pay a compensation of ₹10,000 each to the woman and the baby.