More than a year after Imrana, a Muslim woman from a western UP village, defied clerics and village elders and complained that she had been raped by her father-in-law, a Muzaffarnagar district court today sentenced the accused, Ali Mohammed, to ten years in prison, holding him guilty of rape and criminal intimidation.

District judge R D Nimesh ordered that Imrana be paid Rs 8,000 from the Rs 10,000 penalty imposed on Ali Mohammed.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board welcomed the verdict and said the stand taken by some clerics that Imrana should have married her father-in-law was against the tenets of Islam. Khalid Rashid, a member of the AIMPLB, said: “According to the AIMPLB and the Sharia, the victim cannot marry a person who has raped her. No one can accept such a fatwa.”

Imrana, a mother of five from Charthawal village, complained to the police that she was raped by her 65-year-old father-in-law in June, 2005 while her husband was away at work. She stood up to the clergy and sought legal recourse after clerics of the Dar-ul-Uloom seminary ruled that since she had already had a physical relationship with her father-in-law, her marriage was void and she should treat her husband as her son.

Husband Nur Ilahi, a rickshaw-puller who worked at brick kilns, initially kept quiet but later joined his wife in her battle for justice. After the court order today, Ali Mohammed said he would appeal. Some local clerics again demanded that Imrana’s husband should desert her.