he District and Sessions Court on Thursday convicted and sentenced three persons to life and imposed a fine of Rs. 1.1 lakh on each of them for abducting and gang-raping a medical student hailing from Kerala at Ontibettu, near Manipal, on June 21, 2013.
The court also sentenced two others, convicted of destroying evidence in the same case, with three years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5,000 each.
The three sentenced to life imprisonment are Yogish Poojary (32), Hariprasad Poojary (29) and Ananda (30), while the two punished for destroying evidence are Balachandra and Harindra.
T.S. Jituri, public prosecutor, said life sentence in this case was extended to the remainder of their natural life owing to the gravity of the crime committed by them. Though all the five pleaded before the court to show leniency on the grounds that they had aged parents to look after, their plea was not entertained.
Sixty-two witnesses were examined in the case.
On June 20, 2013, the medical student of Manipal University was walking from the University Library to her room when she was abducted in front of the Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences around 11.20 p.m. , by Yogish, Hariprasad and Ananda, who came in an autorickshaw.
They took her to a secluded place at Ontibettu village and gang-raped her in the early hours of June 21, threatened her against revealing anything and then abandoned her near her room.
After a massive manhunt, the police arrested Yogish, Hariprasad and Anand on June 27.
The police arrested Balachandra, brother of Yogish, and Harindra, brother of Hariprasad, on the charge of destroying evidence on July 2, 2013. Balachandra and Harindra were released on bail in December 2013.
Both Balachandra and Harindra were taken into custody after the judgment was pronouncement on Thursday by District and Sessions judge Shivashankar B. Amarannavar.
The two were, however, given bail by the court, subject to appeal in the High Court of Karnataka.
