Five get 10 years in jail for gang rape

NEW DELHI: Calling gang rape as “gravest form of crime”, a fast-track court found five men guilty of raping a teenager seven years ago. The gravity of such offence, the court said, becomes even more when it is committed on a girl who was a minor at the time of the incident. “I, therefore, find that the convicts are not at all entitled to any leniency… I sentence all the accused persons for rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years and a fine of Rs 5,000 each...,” said fast-track court judge Shailender Malik.The victim, the court observed, had married subsequently but when her husband got to know about her ordeal, he left her. The court also noted that she was a single mother. “In order to provide restorative and compensatory justice to the prosecutrix, Rs 5 lakh is granted to her as compensation,” directed the court.The accused — Shakeel Khan, Tasir Khan, Toufiq Khan, Rehman and Neeraj — were convicted on charges of gang rape, abduction, illegal confinement and criminal intimidation. The victim went missing on December 12, 2010 and was rescued on December 16.While Taseer was arrested on the same day, Rehman, Taufik and Shakeel Khan were arrested on December 23, 2010. After completing its investigation, the police filed the chargesheet and with the arrest of Neeraj on April 29, 2011, a supplementary chargesheet paved for their trial. The trial saw deposition of 28 witnesses, including the victim, whereas the accused men denied the allegations and claimed that they were framed. “I was confined in one room then those boys made me forcibly take liquor and thereafter those boys committed ‘wrong act’ on me, one by one (sic),” the victim said in her statement before the court.The court considered the fact that the victim was rescued from a room following which she identified each of the accused. It then observed, “Evidence of prosecutrix also establishes offence of criminal intimidation as it came in her evidence that she was given threats by accused that they will kill her only brother.” Meanwhile, the court granted relief of the period already undergone by the accused behind bars.