A Delhi court has sentenced two men to ten years of imprisonment each for gang-raping a 13-year-old Class VIII student of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya at a temple in Hari Nagar in 2010.
A juvenile was also involved in the crime. All the three accused — the juvenile, Mahender and Vinay Mishra — had raped the victim in a room at a temple called Dukh Nivaran Mandir.
The juvenile had taken the victim to the temple from a park. The victim stayed in the temple that night. Thereafter, Mahender took her to his house where she was confined by the accused’s mother for a day.
But the court acquitted the mother-son duo of kidnapping charge as the court said there was no coercion on the victim to stay there.
However, the court held Mahender and Vinay Mishra guilty of the gang-rape charge on the basis of the statement of the victim and its corroboration by her in the trial of the case.
Holding the two accused guilty, Additional Sessions Judge Rajneesh Kumar Gupta: “From the evidence on record, the testimony of prosecution witness (girl) is proved to be reliable and inspire confidence and it proves that both the accused persons namely Vinay Mishra and Mahender Singh have acted in furtherance of their common intention in committing rape with the minor.’’
“Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, both the convicts are sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years each and a fine of Rs.5,000 each under Section 376(2)(g) (gang-rape) of the IPC,’’ the court said.
