A 35-year-old man has been given life imprisonment for raping a pregnant relative by a special fast track court here which said stern punishment should be given to him as women in the society need to be protected.

The special fast track court, set up to try exclusively cases of sexual offences against women, directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs three lakh to the woman in accordance with the Delhi Victims Compensation Scheme.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Nivedita Anil Sharma also imposed a fine of Rs 62,000 upon convict Ramjee Lal after holding him guilty of raping, intimidating and wrongfully confining the victim in March last year.

"Rape in itself is abominable and ghastly and it worsens and becomes inhuman and barbaric when accused is in fiduciary relationship with the victim who is subjected to unwanted physical contact by a perverted male adult," the court said.

"The welfare and interest of other women in the society also need to be protected for the reason that if the convict is released, they may be subjected by him in a similar offence...," it said, adding, "Recently, crime against women generally and rape in particular is on the increase and the society also appears to be concerned" about the honour of women.

According to the prosecution, Lal, a resident of Uttam Nagar here, had raped the woman, who was the wife of his nephew, twice on March 3, last year when she was alone in her house and had threatened her not to disclose the incident to anyone.

The woman had told her husband about the incident and the accused, a carpenter, had assaulted the couple when they had gone to his house, it said, adding that a case was then registered against Lal and he was arrested.

During the trial, Lal had claimed that he was falsely implicated in this case as the woman's husband had borrowed Rs 50,000 from him and was not returning the same.

The court convicted Lal relying on the statement of the victim as well the medical records.

"I find that the prosecutrix, in her evidence before the court as well as her statement to the police, is consistent with regard to the role of the accused and the manner in which he committed the offence by raping her twice on the same day," it said.

The court dismissed the contention of Lal regarding his false implication in the case, saying, "No Indian woman would put her reputation to stake by making false allegations against a man outside the marriage nor any Indian male would expose his wife to come up with such an allegation against his distant relative only for not returning the borrowed amount."

The judge also noted that there was nothing on the record to show that the evidence was "false or motivated".