The city government Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the teenaged rape victim, who is eight months pregnant and has been abandoned by her family, will be transferred to a shelter home for delivering the child and for medical facilities.
Justice Manmohan Singh disposed of the plea after recording the submission of the Delhi government counsel. The victim will be sent to Shelter Home for Pregnant and Lactating Women in Sarai Rohilla in north Delhi for better medical facilities.
The 19-year-old rape victim had moved the court seeking medical and financial assistance to give birth to her baby as she is too poor to bear the expenses.
Ruchi Sindhwani, additional standing counsel appearing for the Delhi government, told the court that all necessary facilities would be provided to the victim and she would not have to bear any expenses involved in delivering the child.
The court order said: “Suggestion is made by counsel appearing for the state that the petitioner (victim) may be sent to Shelter Home for Pregnant and Lactating Women, Sarai Rohilla.”
Lawyers Nishit Kush and Vijay Kinger, appearing for the woman, had earlier told the court: “The victim is in a pitiable financial condition and cannot meet the expenses for delivery.”
The petition said that the woman was raped by her neighbour Sanjay Choudhury in October last year. The accused threatened her not to disclose the incident to anyone or he would kill her brother.
“The accused raped the woman and clicked her nude photographs with his mobile phone and threatened her that he will make the pictures public,” the petition added.
During a medical check-up March 3, it was found that the woman was five-month pregnant, it said.
The woman lodged a complaint in east Delhi’s Mansarovar Park area March 4 but the accused was still to be arrested, the plea said.
It said she earlier moved the court to terminate her pregnancy but doctors opined against it.
The woman had said in her petition: “The stigma attached to delivering a child without marriage causes grave mental injury to me coupled with financial scarcity.”
“To carry a child in the womb as a result of conception through rape is not only extremely traumatic but also humiliating,” she had said.
Abandoned by her family, she currently lives with a distant relative.
(Source:IANS)
