A special court in Delhi on Saturday convicted two men of raping a five-year-old girl at Gandhi Nagar in East Delhi in 2013, observing that the victim had experienced exceptional depravity and extreme brutality at their hands. Arguments on the quantum of sentence will be heard on January 30.
Stating that the case had shaken the collective conscience of the society, Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra of the Karkardooma court held Manoj Shah and Pradeep Kumar guilty.
The gruesome incident, which had triggered widespread protests , took place on April 15, 2013, after which Manoj and Pradeep went underground. About 40 hours later, the victim was traced to a ground-floor room of the building where she lived with her family on the first floor. Manoj had taken the room on rent a few days ago.
The police seized three candles and a hair-oil bottle that were inserted inside the girl. While Manoj was arrested from his in-laws’ residence in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, Pradeep was arrested from his maternal uncle’s place in Lakhisarai, also in Bihar.
Based on the investigations, the police said the two men were inebriated when Manoj lured the girl into his room. They then subjected her to unnatural sex and also attempted to strangle her, as alleged.
The victim was later shifted to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment.
While the victim’s family expressed satisfaction over the conviction, they said the trial should have been concluded faster.
The police had filed a charge sheet in the case on May 24, 2013, following which the court framed charges against Manoj and Pradeep in July that year. During the trial, statements of 57 prosecution witnesses were recorded and considerable forensic evidence presented before the POCSO court.
(With inputs from PTI)
