New Delhi: Supreme Court Thursday refused to entertain a doctor’s plea seeking suspension of the sentence of life imprisonment awarded to him after being convicted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) for raping his seven-year-old daughter.A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma said he was not entitled to bail, considering the kind of things he did to his daughter.The convict’s lawyer contended that he was framed because of differences with his wife, and that she tutored the child to testify against him. His wife is also a doctor but despite that the medical examination of his daughter was delayed by three months and no injury marks were found on her body, the advocate said.The bench, however, said there was no reason to disbelieve the child’s statement and she also withstood the cross-examination. “The man became a beast. Please don’t force us to say anything more… She testified against her father. Why should we disbelieve her,” it asked.Pressing for relief, the convict said it would take years for Allahabad HC to decide his appeal and he would have to languish in jail during the pendency of the case. He said 12 lakh cases were pending in HC, and appeals filed in 1981 were being heard now. But SC refused his plea and granted him permission to file a fresh bail petition after some time.“This is the most liberal bench and if we are not granting bail it means there is something. We cannot help it,” Justice Sharma said. The man was convicted by a Varanasi court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
