Neighbour rapes mentally unstable minor girl, booked

A 15-year-old mentally unstable girl was kidnapped and raped by her 22-year-old neighbour in south-east Delhi’s Govindpuri on Thursday night.

According to police, the minor girl had gone outside her house to relieve herself when the neighbour dragged her to his home and forced himself on her.

The alleged accused was caught red-handed by the girl’s grandmother, who, after finding the girl missing in the room, went in search of her. “A neighbour told the elderly woman that he has seen a youth taking the girl towards his home,” said police.

While looking for the girl, the elderly woman heard her cry for help from a room. When she went inside, she found the man in a compromising position. She raised an alarm, after which locals caught him, thrashed him and handed over to police.

“This incident was a challenge to the government, state and police. It was shameful and it was a blot. But this verdict has a lesson for the perverts.”

The four convicts — gym instructor Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Thakur, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta and unemployed Mukesh Singh — along with driver Ram Singh and the teenager pounced on the young woman and her friend when they boarded the bus to go home after watching a movie, Life of Pi.

The rapists pinned down her male companion, raped her one by one, and pulled out her internal organs with a rusted L-shaped iron rod used with a wheel jack. Then they threw them out of the vehicle. She died of internal injuries 13 days later in a Singapore hospital.

Ram Singh committed suicide in Tihar jail, while the teenaged convict was set free after he served a three-year sentence in a correctional home for juvenile delinquents.

Devi said it is difficult for her to accept the light punishment given to the teenager.

“He was released because he was a child, but what that boy did to my girl is not a child’s act. I can never forgive him,” she said.

“The whole country knows about the case but nobody saw her pain. I saw it. My daughter died in front of me.”

The convicts are expected to approach the President for clemency.

The victim’s father said “ultimate justice” will be done after the President declines their mercy plea. “We will wait for that day.”

At Devi and Singh’s village in UP’s Ballia, people held special prayers to thank god and the court. Residents of Medawar Kala said they had been all along praying for justice to their daughter.