Dhaula Kuan gang-rape convicts get life

A fast-track court at Dwarka had earlier on October 15 held all five accused guilty for the gangrape of the 30-year-old Northeast woman in a pick-up truck.

October 20, 2014 04:06 pm | Updated October 18, 2016 01:13 pm IST - New Delhi

A Delhi court on Monday sentenced all the five convicts in the 2010 Dhaula Kuan gangrape case to life imprisonment. It also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them.

The fast-track court at Dwarka had earlier on October 15 held all five accused guilty for the gangrape of the 30-year-old Northeast woman in a pick-up truck.

Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat had convicted the five accused, all natives of Haryana, for kidnapping, gang-rape and criminal intimidation relying on the testimony of the victim, medical evidence including the DNA report.

“The scrutiny of evidence lead by the parties inevitably demonstrates that the prosecution has succeeded in proving charges under Sections 365/34 IPC (kidnapping and common intention), 376 (2) (g) (gang-rape) and 506/34 (criminal intimidation) against all the five accused,” the judge had said in its 131-page judgement

The accused, Usman alias Kale, Shamshad alias Khutkan, Shahid alias Chhota Billi, Iqbal alias Bada Billi and Kamruddin alias Mobile, were all aged between 24 and 29 years. They were all cattle thieves from Haryana’s Mewat region.

The court had then hear the argument on awarding sentence on October 17. During the argument, the State had sought life imprisonment for all the convicts stating that they “are men with criminal mentality”.

In his order, Mr. Bhat said the court was not persuaded to show leniency to the convicts on basis of their economic background as they were involved in a heinous offence.

The court hearing also witnessed high drama as Shahid fainted in the courtroom. He had to be bodily lifted and was taken to the court dispensary.

Earlier during the argument in the case on October 17, Public Prosecutor Satvinder Kaur had noted that after the recent criminal amendment, the maximum punishment for rape is life imprisonment and the convicts deserve that.

The convicts for their part had pleaded leniency before the court saying their families are facing hardships for four years now with they being in judicial custody since their arrest in December 2010.

But the State brought to court's notice that convict Usman was accused in another gangrape case along with his brother Islam, who suffers partial disability and memory loss following a road accident. They were, however, acquitted in that case.

Ms Kaur had pointed out another case of rioting registered against Kamruddin and Usman in 2010 with police station Sector 55, Faridabad.

“These men are with criminal mentality. They have no respect for the law,” she had said.

The five convicts had picked up the victim when she and her friend were dropped by their cab behind Moti Bagh gurdwara at about 1-10 a.m. on the intervening night of November 23-24, 2010. When the girls started walking towards their house, the five men in a white pick-up truck stopped near them. Accused Kamru, Shamshad and Shahid tried to pull the girls inside. One of the girls ran towards the residential area. Kamru pointed revolver towards the victim and forced her to sit in the vehicle.

Shahid then took the steering and drove towards Dhaula Kuan. On the way, Kamru raped the girl. Upon reaching Mangolpuri, they stopped the vehicle and shifted the girl to the rear of the truck where all five of them took turns to rape her and then dropped her at a point in Mangolpuri at about 2-25 a.m.

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