A Delhi court has awarded 30-year jail term to two youth for >kidnapping and raping a Ugandan national , observing that “their act brought India in disrepute in the eyes of the world”.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat awarded the jail term to Raj Kumar and Dinesh Sharma along with a fine of Rs. 50,000 each.
“By choosing a foreign national as their target, they have shown that they do not care even for the respect and dignity of our country. Their act has brought India in disrepute in the eyes of the world,” the judge said.
The court said the manner in which the two convicts committed the crime shows that they were “ferocious criminals with no concern for respect and dignity of a woman.”
The court had earlier convicted both Kumar and Sharma for the offences under sections 365 (kidnapping), 356 (assault for theft), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 376 (D) (gang rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), while relying on the statements of victim and rejecting the DNA report which could not prove their guilt.
It said that victim’s statement, if found to be reliable and worthy of credence, requires no corroboration and it may convict the accused on her sole testimony.
“The medical evidence or the forensic evidence is based upon the performance of machine used by the expert; certain calculations made by the expert and also on some guess work. It is for this reason that the court has to be very circumspect in determining whether it should rely upon the ocular evidence or the medical/forensic evidence in a given case,” it said while rejecting the contention of the convicts that as DNA report could not prove their crime, they be freed.
According to prosecution, a Ugandan national woman was kidnapped by the convicts in their car at Janakpuri area on June 18, 2014 at around 11.30 p.m.
