A Delhi Court on Friday sentenced a 76-year-old temple priest to life imprisonment for raping two underage girls inside a temple at South Delhi’s Mehrauli area.
The court also granted compensation of $10,008 (Rs.750,000) to each victim “to secure their emotional and mental health and to ensure that they have unhindered education to equip them for a safer future.”
Announcing the verdict, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vijeta Singh Rawat, said that the priest, Vishva Bandhu, had desecrated the place of worship which should have been a safe place for the children. In her summing up, she said: “The convict was a priest by profession and committed offences upon children within the sacred precincts of a temple. He has betrayed the trust and respect that the victims, and the public had for him. No remorse was expressed at any stage of the trial.”
Crimes against women, including rape and molestation, are on the rise in Delhi. Delhi Police data shows that the number of cases which have been reported between 1 January and 15 June this year is 43 percent up on the the same period last year.
On 1 August, a 55-year-old priest and three others, gang-raped, murdered and then cremated a nine-year-old Dalit girl in south-west Delhi.