NEW DELHI, May 17: An 81-year-old man was arrested in Noida in Uttar Pradesh on Delhi borders for alleged “digital rape” of a 17 year-old girl over a period of more than seven years, the police said.
According to reports, digital rape means having forced sex with a woman/girl using any object other than the reproductive organ. Since in English dictionary, finger, thumb and toe are addressed as ‘digit,’ the act has been identified as ‘digital rape.’
The police said the suspect, who is a sketch artist by profession, was living with the 17-year-old victim as her guardian. The man had an office in Himachal Pradesh and one of his workers sent his minor daughter to live with him, so that she could get education. He was sexually exploiting the minor ever since.
“The girl was initially scared…in the past one month, she started recording the suspect’s sexual advances, mostly as audio files. She collected sizeable evidence and shared her plight with a woman, who lived with the suspect who then lodged a complaint,” the police said.
Till 2013, digital rape was considered as molestation. However, after the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape incident in Delhi, new rape laws were passed in Parliament which stated that any forced penetration will come into the ambit of the anti-rape law. Around 70 per cent of the cases are committed by near and dear ones.
The law states that the offender can be sentenced to at least five years in jail, while in certain cases, the punishment may go on till 10 years or even imply life imprisonment.
(Manas Dasgupta)