Ritika Pratap 
A 38-year-old man has been jailed for 10 years for raping his stepdaughter on two separate occasions.
He was found guilty of two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.
The Court heard the first incident occurred in November 2016, three months after the victim had given birth.
The woman was in her early 20s and had fallen asleep after breastfeeding her child when the man entered her room and raped her.
When the victim screamed, her mother came and hit the man with a stick.
The court heard that because of the incident, the victim left her home with her child on the same day to live with her uncle in another village.
In 2021, the victim returned home out of concern for her mother.
The Court heard that on September 11th, she went out with her friend and came home late at night.
She woke up in the early hours of the morning and found the man beside her bed, who then sexually assaulted her.
The victim screamed and punched him.
She immediately alerted the police and was medically examined the same day.
While sentencing the man, Judge Justice Daniel Goundar says there is no excuse for what he did to the victim, as he exploited her for his sexual gratification.
Justice Goundar says when the victim returned home five years later for her mother, the man raped her again, adding further trauma to her, and she felt humiliated.
He has a non-parole sentence of seven years.
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