A sessions court in Odisha’s Jajpur district on Friday awarded 30-year jail term to a man, who along with two friends had raped his minor sister-in-law and slashed her tongue in order to prevent the victim from narrating her ordeal.
Terming the rape a heinous crime, District and Sessions Judge Jeevan Ballav Das sentenced the culprit to undergo 10 years of imprisonment each for three offences and imposed fine of Rs.30,000. The court ordered if the convict failed to pay the fine, he would have to undergo three years of additional imprisonment. The rape had taken place at Sukinda on September 9, 2013.
“This is one of the most shocking rape cases I have ever come across. The victim was a sister-in-law of the convict who hails from a rich family. The innocent girl was taken around in shopping malls and later brought to the culprit’s Sukinda house where she was brutally raped. Two accomplices of culprit had raped the girl by putting on mask,” said Ajay Kumar Das, government pleader and public prosecutor.
Since the culprit’s friends had worn masks, the victim could not identify the other two rapists, Mr. Das said.
He said after physically assaulting the victim, the rapists slashed her tongue so that the girl could not describe the details to the law enforcing agencies. “Her head was struck with a hard object so that she could lose her memory.”
“The girl was first admitted to a local hospital in Sukinda and then shifted to private hospital in Cuttack. After months of medication, she regained her normal health status,” said the public prosecutor.
He said the court awarded 10 years jail term each under section 307 of IPC, sub-section (2) of section 376 of IPC and section IV of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. The order says the punishment would run consecutively.
A total of 26 witnesses including police personnel and doctors were produced from the prosecution side while the defence could only provide three witnesses.
