80-YEAR-OLD PAINTER ARRESTED FOR DIGITAL RAPE OF GIRL

When a 17-year-old girl gingerly walked into Noida’s Sector-39 police station on Sunday to narrate her ordeal of more than 7 years, it shook the men in khaki. All these years, the girl had been sexually abused by an elderly man who had sought her from her father to play as her guardian and to provide for her and had brought her to his Noida home when she was 10. The guardian in question was Morris Rider, a famous painter, who resides in house number A-284 located in Noida Sector-46. The girl was accompanied by a woman who has been living in with the man for the past 20 years.

The policemen there did not believe that an 80-year-old man could have sexually abused her. But when the victim handed them some audio and video recordings and after they heard the contents which the girl had recorded, it made them sit up and

act, as the tapes were evidence of the abuse Morris Rider had put the girl through. The teenager told the police that she had recorded it only because she thought no one would believe her story.

The police swung into action and arrested Morris Rider under Sections 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Ranvijay Singh told the media that Morris Rider that had brought the girl to his house to look after her when she was 10 years old. He has been sexually abusing her since then. When the victim objected to the abuse, the accused used to beat her up. The accused used to consume potency-enhancing medicines before indulging in sexual abuse. Morris Rider, her tormentor and rapist, has been accused of digital rape. The victim has been sent to the district hospital for medical examination.

As soon as the news of this digital rape spread it caused a lot of bewilderment and shock all around with many linking the term with a forced sexual act that was done digitally or done using the Internet. However, digital rape has nothing to do with the Internet or gadgets like mobile phone. The term “digital rape” came into being in the wake of the Nirbhaya case in December 2012 that forced a relook at various acts of sexual offences, which were defined under various categories of rape. It means forced sex with a woman or girl or penetration using fingers or toes.