A trial court on Thursday held three of the four convicts in the photojournalist gang-rape case guilty of an additional charge framed against them under Section 376 (E) of IPC for their “repeat” rape offences — a charge that prescribes a maximum punishment of death penalty.
Thirteen days after she sentenced three convicts under Section 376 (D) of the IPC till the remainder of their natural lives for their involvement in the July 31, 2013 telephone operator gang- rape case, Principal Sessions Judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi convicted the three “common” convicts under Section 376(E) (repeated offence of rape) of the IPC in the August 22, 2013 photojournalist gang rape case.
The three “common” convicts who were found guilty and convicted by the court under Section 376 (E) of IPC in the photojournalist gang-rape were: Vijay Jadhav (19) Mohammad Qasim Shaikh alias Qasim Bengali (21) and Mohammad Ansari (28). The court is likely to pronounce the sentence for the three “common” convicts, after hearing both the prosecution and defence lawyers on Friday. Under Section 376 (E) of the IPC, the three convicts face life imprisonment either “for the remainder of the natural lives” or death on the ground that the three convicts were “repeat offenders” in rape cases.