He had told her that he preferred to have a son.
A 59-year-old Indian man from Mumbai’s Chembur area has been jailed for life for sexually assaulting his nine-month-old daughter.
The unnamed man was sentenced under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at a court in Mumbai.
The incident took place in 2017 when the child’s mother was woken in the middle of the night to the sound of her daughter crying.
When she went to check on her daughter, she saw that her husband had his finger in the child’s private parts and she was crying with pain.
The crying woke up the couple’s three other children. But, the man beat them and threatened them to not speak about the incident to anyone.
Following the incident, the suspect ran away but the woman did not register a complaint.
She later noticed that her daughter was not able to go to the toilet after what happened. The woman then took the child to a private hospital but she was transferred to Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in Sion, Mumbai.
The doctors recommended a medical ultrasound but the woman said she could not afford it.
She later found her husband and together they admitted the girl to Shatabdi hospital. Doctors confirmed that the girl’s inability to pass urine was due to sexual assault. They called the police and a case was registered.
The victim spent a week in hospital as a result of the assault. The mother initially wanted the case to be retracted as she said she would not be able to take care of her four children by herself.
In her statement, the victim’s mother said that she got married in 2005. She said her husband’s behaviour changed after their daughter was born. He had told her that he preferred to have a son.
The woman also said that she mentioned the incident to her sister-in-law who was shocked to hear what her brother had done.
Public prosecutor Geeta Sharma told the court that the suspect ran away because he knew how serious the offence was.
She said: “It was only after the mother promised that she would not tell anyone that he agreed to get the victim treated.
“The small girl is a real victim. She needs help and justice from the court and state.”
“She is helpless and is our responsibility.”
Judge CA Nathani took all the evidence into account and listened to the arguments before convicting the man under Section 235 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and Section 6 of the POCSO Act.
The father of the victim was sentenced to life in prison.
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