A 54-year-old sweeper was on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Thane for raping his 11-year-old daughter in 2013.
Thane sessions Judge VV Virkar convicted the sweeper after he was tried under various sections of IPC and also POCSO Act 2012.
He was also slapped with a fine of Rs. 6,000.
In her submission, prosecutor Ruma Navale told the court that the accused who worked as a sweeper in a housing complex resided at Shivaji Nagar in Turbhe with his three children (two girls and a boy) and his aged mother.
The accused was a widower and an alcoholic, the court was told.
Drunk, the accused used to beat children frequently and abuse them. In early 2013, he allegedly raped his elder daughter who then narrated the ordeal to her grandmother but she asked the victim not to reveal the incident to anyone.
When the sexual abuse was repeated several times in mid-2013, the girl broke her silence before a neighbour who got the two sisters admitted at an orphanage with the help of an NGO but not before filing a complaint with Turbe Police.
The accused was charged under sections 323,376 and 377 of IPC and also sections 4,6,8 of POCSO Act.
