A Fast Track court in the city on Friday sentenced six of the eight persons involved in the gang rape of a law student in October last year to life imprisonment.
While one of the gang members is on the run, another, a minor, is being tried under the Juvenile Justice Act. The court on Wednesday had found all the six guilty of raping the student in the Jnana Bharathi campus of the Bangalore University on October 12, 2012.
Judge Krishnamurthy D. Sangannanavar also directed the Criminal Injuries Board to compensate the victim for physical and mental trauma, and the fact that she had to discontinue her studies post the incident. The newly formed board decides on the quantum of compensation to be given by the government to the victim. While pronouncing the sentence, the judge said he felt the punishment for the convicts should be appropriate considering the seriousness of the crime. The quantum of punishment should meet the severity of the crime. This is a case where the victim suffers not just physical trauma but also mental trauma that will remain with her the rest of her life, the judge observed.
The Jnana Bharathi police had arrested the accused Shivanna (20), Yellaiah (23), Eeraiah (20), Doddeera (19), Maddura (20) and Rama (20).
The eighth accused Raja is absconding. The trial was conducted in 20 days after the police filed the charge sheet in August 2013. In all, the prosecution examined 31 witnesses and submitted 79 documents and 74 material objects before the court.
They were found guilty of all the charges levelled against them under abduction (366), gang rape (376-2G), dacoity (397) and assault (323 and 324).
Scientific investigations
The DNA profiling and portrait (sketches) of the accused helped the investigators to crack the case. According to the police, the victim narrated the physical description of the accused based on which the police developed a portrait from an artist, a senior police officer said.
This is one of the rarest of rare case where the sketch of the accused matched exactly with the photos available in the crime database, he added. Using the portrait, the police nabbed one of the accused, which led to the arrest of others, the police said.
Meanwhile the police managed to get the DNA of the accused from the samples available from the scene of the crime, which helped the police nail the accused.
Aggressive
Among the seven accused, the juvenile delinquent was the most aggressive and listed as prime accused in the case, and is being tried in J.J Act. "Even if he (the minor) is convicted for rape, the maximum punishment would be three years in the State home for children. Since he has already spent one year, he would come out in another two years,” the police said.
