Four persons charged with raping a minor girl from West Bengal were found guilty of the crime by the District and Sessions Court at Thalassery on Saturday.
District and Sessions judge V. Shercy found the first three accused, Muhammad Shareef, 27; Muhammad Salid, 25; and Biju, 38; guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 376(G) (gang rape), 366(2) (kidnapping) and 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (common intention for criminal act). The fourth accused, N.I. Jamsheer, 23, was found guilty under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 342. All the accused are from Vayathur and Ulikkal, near Iritty. The court will pronounce the sentence on June 30.
The prosecution had presented 57 witnesses in the case, including two relatives.
According to the prosecution, the victim, from a village in Murshidabad district in West Bengal, along with her two relatives was waiting at a bus stop at Perumbadi, near Virajpet in Karnataka, on the night of December 23, 2011 to board a bus for Kannur when they were offered a lift in a mini-lorry by the first three accused. The three-member gang drove to an isolated area and pushed out the girl’s relatives and gang-raped her. Before abandoning the victim on the roadside, the fourth accused, their common friend, joined them in the criminal act.
