The court of principal judicial commissioner Navneet Kumar on Wednesday convicted 11 persons in abduction and gape rape of a law college student near Ring Road in Kanke area in November last year. The court found the accused guilty of committing heinous under section 376 (D) (offence of rape), 120 (B) conspiracy, 323 (causing hurt) and 366 (kidnapping, abducting) and other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The twelfth accused in the case is juvenile and he will face trial under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court will announce the quantum of punishment in the case on Monday (March 2).
The gang rape of 25-year-old student sent shock waves as the perpetrators overpowered her friend and dragged her to a brick kiln a few meters off Ring Road, where they took turns to outrage her modesty. Days after the incident, police arrested all the 12 accused in connection with the case and recovered one 7.62mm pistol, two magazines, two live cartridges, one country-made pistol, eight mobile phones, a car and a motorcycle from their possession.
Prosecution lawyer Anil Kumar Singh said, “The court found all the accused guilty. The Court will announce the quantum of punishment on Monday, but we will demand from the Court to give maximum punishment in the case, which is life imprisonment.” The judge, while announcing the conviction, stated that the court went through 21 witness and evidences in the case implying that the all accused with a conspiracy abducted the girl for outraging her modesty.
The court also found that two accused in the case Sandeep and Sunil assaulted the victim’s male friend who too is witness in the case. The victim’s male friend was held captive. The court found that the crime committed by the accused is heinous. All the accused are in the age bracket of 18 years to 30 years and most of them were smalltime businessmen and labourers from villages in the outskirts of the State capital.
The police caught all the accused based on evidence found from the spot and later based on mobile locations of the accused. On the directive of Jharkhand High Court, the day to day hearing of the case was carried out. The charge-sheet in the case was filled within 24 days and the High Court was monitoring the case resulting in victim getting justice in the case within 100 days.
The rape incident created shock waves as the spot Sangrampur village where the victim was abducted is barely 4km from her law college campus and 10 km from the Chief Minister’s official residence. The high-security zone also houses the residences of the DGP, chief justice of the Jharkhand high court and the leader of the opposition.