The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that suspended the sentence of three students convicted of gangraping a junior at OP Jindal University at Sonepat, Haryana in August 2013. The accused, who are currently on bail, will be sent back to jail.
The HC had made scathing observations against the victim saying, “The entire crass sequence actually is reflective of a degenerative mindset of the youth breeding denigrating relationships mired in drugs, alcohol, casual sexual escapades and a promiscuous and voyeuristic world.” Two of the boys were sentenced to 20 years each while one was sentenced to undergo seven years’ imprisonment.
Staying the operation of the order passed on September 13, the bench of Justices
SA Bobde and MM Shantanagouder sought responses from the State of Haryana and the three convicted boys. The petition filed by advocate Rohit Kumar Singh on behalf of the victim, whose name was kept confidential, pointed out how the HC judgment damaged the reputation of the victim and suspended the punishment given to the accused.
The boys befriended the girl at the college campus. After one of the accused developed intimacy with the girl, he shot her nude photographs and used to later blackmail her on this basis. He later forced the girl to have sexual intercourse with his friends too. When the girl could not tolerate any longer she complained to the college management following which the matter was reported to the police.
The trial court after analyzing all the evidence corroborated the victim’s statement with the college officials and the WhatsApp communications stored in the mobile phones of the victim and the three accused boys. The trial court handed two of the accused harsh punishment of imprisonment for a period of 20 years under IPC Section 376D (gangrape) and other provisions of the Information Technology Act. The boys had approached the High Court against the trial court order of May 24, 2017.