The Delhi high court has upheld the conviction of a priest who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a trial court for raping a 19-year-old student in his house.

"No special circumstance has been brought to the notice of this court to warrant leniency in awarding sentence. Rather aggravating circumstances are present, that the accused was holding important position in some mission and took advantage of his being a tutor," Justice S N Dhingra said while refusing to show any leniency to the convict.

The convict committed the offence on May 3, 1995 when the victim had come to his house at Nehru Nagar in South Delhi. There were three other children present in the house on that day but the priest sent the eldest one aged seven years, out on some pretext.

Animals behave in a more sensible manner than the man in case, the court told about the convict, who committed the offence in the presence of two children.

"It is said that sometimes truth is stranger than reality. It may look strange that the accused could have committed rape in the presence of two children, but there is no reason to disbelieve the testimony of the Prosecutrix," Justice Dhingra said while dismissing the appeal of the priest.

The trial court convicted the priest on December 19, 1998 and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000.