2 men convicted in Delhi ‘Gudiya’ gang-rape case
THE QUANTUM OF PUNISHMENT WILL BE PRONOUNCED ON JANUARY 30
NEWDELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday convicted two men of abducting and raping a fiveyear-old girl in east Delhi in 2013, an incident that came close on the heels of the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student, with the judge saying that the “most grotesque” crime shook the collective conscience of the community.
Manoj Shah and Pradeep Kumar were convicted for brutally raping the minor girl — who later came to be known as Gudiya (not her real name)— at their rented house in Gandhi Nagar in April 2013. When rescued, the girl was found with candles and plastic bottles inside her body.
The quantum of punishment, which could range between at least 10 years in jail and life imprisonment, will be pronounced on January 30.
Saturday’s verdict came a day after a fresh date was set for the execution of four convicts in the 2012 gang-rape case that triggered nationwide protests and paved the way for stricter antirape laws in the country.
While convicting the two men for the rape of the five-year-old, additional sessions judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra said: “In our society, the minor girls are worshipped as goddesses on certain occasions but in the present case, the victim child, who was aged 5 years at the time of the incident, had experienced exceptional depravity and extreme brutality. The crime against the victim was committed in a most grotesque and revolting manner and the collective conscience of the community was shaken.”
Shah and Kumar were found guilty of abduction (Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code), wrongful confinement (342) destruction of evidence (201), 307 (attempt to murder), gang rape with common intention (376-D), and under relevant sections of the Pocso Act.
NEW DELHI: On Saturday, inside a semi-packed Karkardooma court complex, when a city court pronounced its verdict in the 2013 gang-rape case of a minor, seven years had flown by.
It had taken seven judges and seven long years of litigation for a court to find the two suspects guilty of rape and abduction of the five-year-old and pronounce its verdict.
In comparison, a fast-track court had handed out death sentences to five men in the December 16, 2012, gang rape and murder case in nine months
Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, on Saturday took to Twitter to say how it had taken seven long years to get justice in the case. He also wrote that there should be a system in place, by which such cases are decided within a time period (six years) so that women and children are safe in the national capital.
Counsels involved in the case said that the verdict took long because of transfer and change of judges and one of the convicts using delaying tactics by claiming juvenility. The counsel for the victim, advocate Virendra Verma, said that six judges have changed during the trial in the last seven years till the court pronounced its verdict. He said that the delaying tactics used by the accused claiming juvenility is the major reason for the delay in deciding the case.
“In this case, the court resorted to ossification test, which is the last resort to decide the age of a person. Even in the December 16 gang rape case, the accused had used the same tactics. So the system should be made such that if there is evidence against the accused, even though juvenile, he should be tried in the sessions court. This will fast track the process,” Verma said.
The incident, which according to a city court had shaken the collective conscience of the community, was committed in the most gruesome manner. The minor was abducted by two men, one of whom lived in the same building, and sexually assaulted with candles and a bottle, which were later recovered from inside the victim’s body.