On Tuesday, the POCSO Court in Rajasthan’s Kota district convicted Maulvi Abdul Rahim (43) for raping a 6-year-old girl in November last year. The Court slapped the accused with life imprisonment and a monetary fine of Rs 1 lakh.
According to the reports, Special Judge Deepak Dubey addressed the little victim in the judgement and narrated a poem for her. “O my little innocent fairy queen, stay happy and blessed. We have sent the evil demon who made you cry behind the bars till the last breath of his life. Now you can fly fearlessly and fulfil all your dreams. Stay cheerful, blessed and happy”, the poem in Hindi roughly read.
The case of the sexual abuse of the minor dates back to November 2021. Maulvi Abdul Rahim who is a resident of Rampura, Kota was an Urdu teacher and had arrived in Kotsuwa, the village of the victim minor to teach Urdu at the Madarsa. The minor had been attending Urdu tuitions with other students at the Madarsa. On November 13, Maulvi asked her to wait after the class and raped her.
The matter came to light when the girl reached home in the evening with screams and tears in her eyes. She narrated the incident to her mother and aunt who asked the family members to lodge an official complaint against the Maulvi. Reportedly, an FIR was registered at Degod Police station and the Maulvi was arrested for physically abusing a minor child.
The Police carried out the medical and DNA tests and confirmed that the Maulvi had raped the 6-year old girl. They charged the Maulvi under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 5(f)(m)/6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. The Police also filed the charge sheet against the accused within a month. The Court however considered the accused as guilty only after testifying 13 witnesses and verifying 23 evidence documents. The convict is a father of one daughter and three sons.
Rising number of sexual assaults committed by Maulvis inside mosques-
Of late, there has been a rise in crimes of sexual nature committed inside mosques and madarsas. Recently, a 47-year-old cleric was arrested in Delhi for raping a 10-year-old minor girl inside a mosque. The girl had gone inside the mosque to fetch water at 10 pm. The cleric allegedly stopped her and raped her. An FIR had been registered in the case and the Delhi court had sent the accused to 14-day judicial custody.
Another such case was of a cleric named Zafru in Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi who raped a minor girl inside a mosque and pushed her into the well to die. The incident came to the fore when the 14-year-old victim’s family approached the police station, seven days after the incident. Reportedly, after throwing her into the well, Maulana Zafru fled with his family.
Also, in September last year, the Gurugram Police had lodged an official complaint against another cleric for molesting a 9-year-old minor girl inside a mosque in Pataudi. The Police had booked the accused under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the POCSO Act.
