Delhi: Woman gets 7 years imprisonment for abetting daughter-in-law's rape

New Delhi: A 55-year-old woman has been sent to seven years in jail by a Delhi court for harassing and encouraging her minor son to rape her elder daughter-in-law, who was harassed for dowry and committed suicide during trial.

The victim's minor brother-in-law, who was accused of raping her, was being tried before juvenile justice board.

Additional Sessions Judge MC Gupta awarded three years rigorous jail to victim's husband and in-laws, residents of Rohini, for harassing her due to which she committed suicide during the trial.

The court also rejected their plea for releasing them on probation.

"The three convicts to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years each under section 498A (harassing woman) of the IPC.

"Convict (mother-in-law) is further sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years under section 376/109 (abetment to rape) of the IPC," the court said.

The court imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the victim's mother-in-law and Rs 10,000 each on her 58-year-old father-in-law and 30-year-old husband.

According to the prosecution, the woman along with her father had approached Prashant Vihar police station alleging that her husband and parents-in-law harass and beat her for dowry.

She had said her mother-in-law and minor brother-in-law used to tie her in a room and then he would rape her.

She had also said that her mother-in-law also used to misbehave with her physically and when she complained to her husband about it, he said they will stop the illtreatment only when she brings Rs 5 lakh from her parents.

Whenever the woman used to oppose the dowry demands of the accused, they would beat her, she had said, adding that, somehow she escaped from her matrimonial house and informed her parents about it.

The woman said that she had married in May 2002 and the harassment by in-laws began after 10 days of the marriage.

The court had recorded her part statement on October 10, 2005 and she committed suicide the same night due to which her deposition could not be concluded.

During the trial, all the three accused had claimed they were innocent and were falsely implicated in the case.

Seeking leniency, the three family members said they had no previous conviction and they belong to a respectable family enjoying sound social status in the neighbourhood.