“In my considered opinion, castration is the most befitting sentence, which can be given to any paedophile or serial offender. But the hands of this court are tied, the statute not providing for the same since the legislators are yet to explore this as an alternative to conventional sentencing. Society cannot afford to have live sex bombs, who, if let loose, are potential threat to the society, particularly to women and children,” Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said.

The incident occured in 2011 at Northwest Delhi’s Mukundpur. As per the prosecution, the convict Nandan, a driver by profession, had lured his niece while she was playing with her cousins. When her family realised she was missing, they went looking for the girl and found her in a traumatised state in Nandan’s house. He was lying next to her in an intoxicated condition.

The court said prosecution was able to prove that Nandan had abducted and raped the girl, and had also threatened to kill her if she informed anyone. According to the prosecution, Nandan had also attempted the same offence with another girl, aged 13, who had come to the house of a relative. Though family members knew what had happened, they kept quiet, an act which the judge condemned in her order.

“It is the primary duty of each adult member of the family to identify, expose and act against such persons exhibiting these kind of sexual tendencies and aberrations... It is deplorable that for Nandan’s family, his liberty was more crucial to them than the life of the girl which he destroyed,” the judge said.

The court said a message had to be sent out that anyone who sexually abuses a child will not be spared.

Nandan was sentenced to a prison term for actual life, meaning that there would be no remission after 14 years of jail term.

The Indian Penal Code provides only a jail term for sexual offenders. Countries like the US, UK and Germany have started awarding ‘chemical castration’ as

punishment.