Quantum of punishment will be pronounced on October 17
All the five accused in the infamous 2010 Dhaula Kuan gangrape case have been convicted by a city court. The sensational case pertained to the gangrape of a 30-year-old BPO employee from the North-East. The court convicted all the accused and said that the DNA report clearly demonstrates she was raped by them. The court also relied on the testimony of the victim, who had identified two of the accused after the first arrest was made and later helped in apprehending the rest of them. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on October 17 after hearing the arguments from the prosecution and the defence as well.
Usman, alias Kale, Shamshad, alias Khutkan, Shahid, alias Chhota Billi, Iqbal, alias Bada Billi and Kamruddin, alias Mobile — all residents of Mewat region in Haryana — were convicted by Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Virender Kumar Bhat, who will hear the argument on awarding sentence to them on October 17. The judge said the case against them has been proved by the evidence, including DNA report that the victim was abducted and gangraped in the moving vehicle as well as at a secluded place in Mangolpuri.
While convicting the accused, the ASJ noted that the victim, who was a BPO employee, has not faltered at any point and stood her ground throughout the entire cross-examination. The court reiterated that she identified the two accused — Usman and Shamshad — correctly during the Test Identification Parade (TIP), a procedure in law in which accused are lined up for identification by the victim in a court, jail or police station.
“The scrutiny of the evidence led by the parties as discussed herein above inevitably demonstrates that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the charges under section 365 (abduction), 34 (common intention), 376(2)(g) (gangrape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) with 34 of IPC against all the five accused,” the judge said. “Resultantly, all the five accused are hereby convicted for the offences,” he said in his 131-page judgement.
The court relied on the report of the Forensic Science laboratory (FSl), which had conducted the DNA test by examining the vaginal swabs of the victim and clothes of the prosecutrix and the accused as well as other evidences recovered from the car. “It is thus, evident that DNA of all the accused was found present in the vaginal slides as well as vaginal swabs of the prosecutrix and also upon the jeans as well as the lingerie she was wearing at the time of the incident.
“Further DNA found in the bloodstains on the pants of the accused Usman was found similar to the DNA of the prosecutrix, as isolated from her blood sample. Hence, the DNA report clearly demonstrates that the prosecutrix had been raped by these five accused,” the court held. The court ruled out the defence of the accused Usman that there was tampering of evidence saying that various samples of the accused were properly taken by doctors, “leaving no room for any tampering or manipulation in the samples”.
During the nearly four year-long trial, a total of 67 witnesses were examined. The case had created uproar in the city and forced Delhi Police to issue an order to all BPOs in Delhi-NCR areas to drop women employees — doing the graveyard shift — home safe by providing them security. The incident also led police to issue specific directions to PCR vans to remain visible on roads and that one officer should remain outside the vehicle round-the-clock. The incident of the abduction and gangrape had taken place on the intervening night of November 23- 24, 2010, when the victim was returning home from work.