Jammu, Oct 24: In a deeply unsettling yet defining judgment, the Principal Sessions Judge of Anantnag, Tahir Khurshid Raina, sentenced a father to life imprisonment for raping and impregnating his 15-year-old daughter, calling the crime “a stain on humanity and a reflection of moral decay in society.” The judgment also condemned the growing erosion of familial trust and social ethics, urging collective introspection.
The case, registered under FIR No. 03/2022 at the Women’s Police Station in Anantnag, involved grave charges under Sections 376(3) and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. After an exhaustive trial, the court found the accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, relying heavily on the victim’s testimony, medical evidence, and corroborative witnesses. During her deposition, the young survivor, overwhelmed with emotion, asked her father, “Does any father do this to his daughter?” The judge noted that this question “was not only directed at the convict but at a society that has failed to protect its children.”
In a strongly worded judgment, the court questioned the state of moral consciousness in modern society. “Are daughters truly safe in their own homes? Have we become so desensitized that the sacred bond between a father and daughter has turned into a nightmare?” the court asked. It remarked that the conviction has “cast a dark shadow over the most pious of human relationships.”
Judge Raina also cited a pending case in the same court, where a grandfather is accused of repeatedly raping his granddaughter over two years, describing such acts as “symptomatic of extreme depravity, moral collapse, and a diseased mindset.” He stressed that these incidents must awaken society’s conscience and provoke serious moral reflection.
Quoting from the Supreme Court’s landmark 2025 judgment in Bhanei Prasad Raju vs. State of Himachal Pradesh, the court observed that when a father, the natural protector turns predator, “the betrayal is not merely personal but institutional.” Such incestuous crimes, the judgment said, must invite “the severest condemnation both in language and in sentence.”
The court sentenced the accused under multiple provisions: life imprisonment till the end of his natural life and a fine of ₹1,00,000 each under Section 376(3) IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act, and seven years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of ₹10,000 under Section 506 IPC. All sentences will run concurrently. The fines, once realized, will be handed to the victim as part of her rehabilitation.
Recognizing the lifelong emotional and psychological scars endured by the survivor, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) Anantnag to invoke the Victim Compensation Scheme under Section 357A of the CrPC. It ordered that compensation of not less than ₹10 lakh be deposited in a fixed account in the victim’s name, supervised by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), and used solely for her education, healthcare, and mental well-being.
The court emphasized that justice should not end with conviction,it must act as a societal mirror. “Judgments like these must stir our collective conscience and remind us that punishment is not enough unless it leads to moral awakening,” the judge said.