1 week Ago By Khadija Khan
New Delhi: A Mohali court sentenced self-styled pastor Bajinder Singh to life imprisonment this month in a 2018 rape case, taking into consideration clinching evidence, such as medical report which proved the offence of rape, photographs showing the survivor with the pastor, and her testimony. Saying that the court must be alive to its responsibility and adopt a sensitive approach in cases concerning rape, a bench of additional district and sessions judge Vikrant Kumar convicted the pastor for the offence on 28 March, and declared the quantum of sentence on 1 April, observing that no leniency should be shown to him. Both orders have been accessed exclusively by ThePrint.
“Rape is not merely a physical assault, rather it often distracts the whole personality of the prosecutrix. The rapist degrades the very soul of the helpless female and, therefore, the testimony of the prosecutrix must be appreciated in the background of the entire case and in such cases, non-examination even of other witnesses may not be a serious infirmity in the prosecution case, particularly where the witnesses had not seen the commission of the offence,” the court observed. Taking note of the fact that the self-styled pastor had an influential position in society, and exercised dominance over the survivor, the court rejected the pastor’s contention that there were contradictions in the case against him.
Even if that were the case, the court said: “Contradictions and discrepancies do not shake the basic version of the prosecutrix. Pastor Bajinder Singh was having dominance over the prosecutrix and state of mind of the rape victim.” It further asserted that contradictions are bound to occur and do not affect the root of the case.
The evidence of the prosecution cannot be rejected due to these minor contradictions, the court said, adding that the evidence must be considered as a whole. The court also noted that the survivor’s testimony was “reliable and trustworthy”. Rejecting the pastor’s defence that the woman had filed a false case against him, the court said he had failed to prove any motive for false implication.
If it was extortion, why didn’t he file a separate complaint with any authority when it was happening, the court asked. The court was acting on a plea filed by the survivor, a domestic worker, who had registered an FIR in 2018 saying that Singh had called her to his Chandigarh flat and offered her tea, after consuming which she became unconscious. The incident took place in September 2017.
The survivor said in her complaint that the pastor beat her and then raped her. Although the pastor’s lawyers pointed out that there was a delay of eight months in the woman coming forward with her complaint, the court said that it was acceptable as in such cases, victims and their families are usually hesitant to report matters fearing repercussions like loss of family honour. The survivor also told the court that although she was initially hesitant, she took the help of one advocate, Pushpa Salaria, who helped her lodge an FIR.
After her complaint, she told the court that Singh started sending her death threats on WhatsApp. Following the registration of the FIR, Singh was arrested but later released on bail. The Mohali court delivered two orders in Singh’s case: a 67-page decision with respect to his conviction for rape that was pronounced on 28 March, and a seven-page order passed on 1 April with regards to the quantum of sentence.
By way of its order, the court sentenced the self-styled Punjab pastor to imprisonment for life, on account of misusing his position as a Christian preacher to commit heinous offences like rape, criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt. The basis of his conviction was a medical report following a medical examination of the survivor in April 2018, which stated that she was subjected to sexual assault. Although Singh prayed for leniency and mercy on the grounds that he was the sole breadwinner of his family, the court was of the view that he had committed a serious offence and there were no mitigating factors in the case.
“Keeping in view the gravity of the offence for which the convict has been convicted by this court, he does not deserve leniency. There are no mitigating circumstances in the present case,” it said. Also Read: How Christianity is growing among Mazhabi Sikhs & Valmiki Hindus in Punjab’s villages Prior to raping her in 2017, the survivor said Singh had lured her with the promise of taking her to the UK with him.
A month after raping her at his home, the survivor said he again raped her in a car and threatened and blackmailed her, saying that he had filmed her in an unconscious state. He proceeded to extort Rs 4 lakh from her, according to the survivor. Due to shame, and being at the receiving end of death threats, the survivor said she was hesitant to complain about the incident for eight months.
In yet another incident, which occurred a few days before she complained to the police, the survivor alleged that the pastor’s goons called her to a spot, picked her up in a car and started beating and touching her inappropriately. On new year’s eve 2018, the survivor said in her plea, she had requested Singh for the video recorded of her with folded hands, pleading that she couldn’t suffer any longer, but to no avail. In July 2018, after the woman approached the police, an FIR was lodged against the pastor under Indian Penal Code sections relating to rape, cheating, outraging the modesty of a woman, prohibition of obscene acts, criminal intimidation and publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form, following which Singh was arrested.
Pleading his case, the pastor argued in court that he was innocent and was being extorted for money by the domestic worker. Taking note of the fact that only three offences could be successfully established against the pastor, of rape, criminal intimidation, and voluntarily causing hurt, the court pointed out that offences like extortion, transmission of obscene material electronically, and cheating could not be proved. A rapist “degrades and defiles the soul of a helpless female”, the court said in its order, adding that in such cases, victims and their families may be hesitant in coming forward to report matters.
This was in response to the pastor’s allegation that there was an inordinate delay in the victim coming forth with her case. The court said that the delay has no effect on the case of the prosecution, while recalling the Supreme Court’s 1996 ruling in State of Punjab vs Gurmit Singh , where it held that “courts while evaluating evidence must remain alive to the fact that in cases of rape (sexual assault), no self-respecting woman would come forward in a court just to make a humiliating statement against her honour”. In such offences, no person will level a false allegation of rape, the court said, observing that in Indian society, a woman would not make such allegations against a person as she is fully aware of the repercussions.
“If she is found to be false, she would be looked at by society with contempt throughout her life,” the court said. Besides this, the Mohali court took into consideration the report of a medical examination of the survivor in April 2018, which revealed that she was subjected to sexual assault. Dismissing allegations made by the pastor’s counsel that the woman’s case was ridden with contradictions, the court said that “contradictions and discrepancies do not shake the basic version of the prosecutrix”.
The court also noted that the pastor had not said the act was consensual, but had instead denied the allegations altogether. The court proceeded to award Singh rigorous imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life, along with a fine of Rs 1 lakh. Failure to pay the fine would mean rigorous imprisonment for a period of six more months for the pastor, the court said.
Apart from this, he was sentenced to one year each for criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt to the woman. (Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui) Also Read: Pastor Bajinder Singh is Baba Ram Rahim of Punjab Christians. Now, ‘Papa’ is in trouble var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.
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