They may have been love birds and tattooed their names on each other's body but a court has sentenced the youth to five years in jail on charges of kidnapping and raping the girl.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sanjay Sharma held 21-year-old youth Vakul Kapoor, who was 19 at the time of commission of the offence, guilty of rape and kidnapping, despite conceding that the girl and the boy were having 'deep-rooted intimacy' and the girl was also a 'consenting party' in the act.
The court, however, said, 'it is high time that the young generation should learn to respect and obey the laws which are and have been made for the benefit of one and all and inculcate sense of discipline in the person'.
While also imposing a fine of Rs 35,000 on the youth, the judge conceded that the crime committed by Vakul was 'not out of any lust or criminal design' but 'in exuberance of youth and without the understanding of law, with an undeveloped set of mind'.
Vakul was arrested on a complaint lodged on June 17, 2009, at Geeta Colony police station by the 14-year-old girl's father, alleging his daughter had gone missing since June 15, 2009, and Vakul had abducted her. The girl had returned home the same evening when Vakul was arrested.
The girl had told the police that she was having intimate relations with the boy for the last one year but she changed her deposition to the court saying Vakul forcefully took her to Manali in Himachal Pradesh where he raped her.
She also alleged the boy had threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed about it to anyone.
The court noted that the doctor, who had medically examined the girl, opined that she had sexual intercourse, corroborating the girl's statement to the police that she was having continuous physical relations with Vakul for over a year.
"The desire for fulfilling all the bodily requirements at a young age without a proper and developed mind, more particularly, fulfilling of sexual desires at an adolescent age is a growing trend in the present generation," the court said, while warning youths of its dangerous consequences.
The court also took note of Vakul's defence counsel's argument that the two, the boy and the girl, were madly in love with each other and had tattooed each others' names on their bodies.
The court ticked off the investigating officer in the case saying he had tried to shield the accused from prosecution by resorting to deliberate negligence during the probe.