SC wonders how a person is out of jail after conviction

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday wondered how the accused, who were in prison during trial in a gangrape case involving a student of a private university in Haryana, were released from jail after they were convicted.

The apex court had earlier stayed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order suspending the sentence awarded to three convicts by the trial court in the case.

The complainant alleged in the FIR, registered in April 2015, that she had taken admission to OP Jindal Global University in Sonepat in August 2013 and got acquainted with one of the accused. She had alleged that the accused, who became a good friend, had raped and forced her to send her obscene pictures and blackmailed her. The woman claimed that the two other accused also raped her on the university campus.

“Law makes us learn new things. This is one of those rare cases where these people (accused) were in custody during the trial and it was only after they were convicted, they were released (from jail),” a bench comprising justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said. “Prima facie, it is enough for us to look into it,” the bench observed.

The bench made these observations while hearing a plea filed by one of the accused, who was awarded seven-year jail term by the trial court after being convicted in the case. The trial court had awarded 20-year imprisonment to two other accused after convicting them for various offences under the IPC, including gangrape and criminal conspiracy, and under provisions of the Information Technology Act. However, the HC had suspended their sentences on the basis of the pleas filed by them and granted them bail.

The victim then approached SC challenging the high court’s order of September 13 last year.

Appearing for the accused, who was awarded 7-year jail term, advocate Siddharth Luthra told the bench that his client’s case was different from the other two persons as they were awarded 20-year imprisonment.