Burdwan, Dec. 9: A 22-year-old boy who had tried to rape a girl of six was today sent to jail for seven years.

The girl’s parents went back on their complaint last month pushing the case to the verge of collapse, but the proceedings took a dramatic turn with the district and sessions judge questioning the victim herself.

When Bandana Roy spoke to the child, she not only identified Ganesh Chandra Manna as the one who had tried to rape her but also recounted the incident in details.

Roy today sentenced Ganesh, who was on bail, to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment. He was taken into custody immediately.

The girl’s father, a poor weaver, and his wife, residents of Dastanpur in Jamalpur, about 90 km from Calcutta, had told the district sessions court that their daughter was never violated.

“We were really surprised when the parents told the court during cross examination that the complaint was lodged with the police without their knowledge. The mother said that she was illiterate and did not know what papers she had signed. Ganesh was held guilty on the basis of the girl’s statement,” assistant public prosecutor Gauranga Chatterjee said.

On November 22, when the six-year-old’s turn came, Roy did not allow any lawyer to question her. She did the job herself.

After unrelated questions ? about her school, family and the direction in which the sun rises for example ? to put the Class I student of Dastanpur Primary School at ease, Roy asked: “Do you know where you have come?”

She did not.

Roy pointed out to Ganesh in the dock and asked her who he was. “That man is Ganeshda. He stays in our locality, two houses away,” the girl said and on she went.

On December 17 last year, Ganesh, the son of an affluent farmer, told her he would take her around the village but shoved her to a bamboo shrub instead. “I cried out in pain? Ganeshda said if I revealed anything, he would kill me,” she told the judge.

Today, neither the girl nor her parents were present in the court.

A resident of Dastanpur who was there said the village was proud of the girl.