In a month, court give life term to 5 for raping teen
BHUBANESWAR: THIS IS THE FASTEST RULING IN A RAPE CASE IN ODISHA. LAST MONTH, SC HAD ASKED ALL HIGH COURTS TO ENSURE
FAST TRIALS OF CASES RELATED TO SEXUAL ASSAULT ON KIDS
Five men from Odisha’s Sambalpur district were on Saturday sentenced to life imprisonment for gang-raping a 16-year-old girl 30 days back.
On May 3, the girl was allegedly gang-raped by her boyfriend Afzal and four other friends in two different places in Sambalpur. She committed suicide by hanging herself to death at her home on May 23.
After a marathon trial of 14 hours which ended at 10pm on Saturday, special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) judge, Udaybhanu Jena sentenced Afzal and four of his friends to life under section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(Pocso) Act and section 376(D) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), said public prosecutor Artatrana Mishra. The court also slapped a fine of ₹50,000 on each of them
“Afzal was the main accused who first sexually assaulted the girl and then asked his friends to assault her,” Mishra said, adding that the final hearing in the case began at 7.30am on Saturday and 21 witnesses were produced.
Other accused who have been sentenced to life are Ashirbad Behera, Abhilash Panchbhia, Tinu Sahu and Hadu Panchbhia.
A juvenile who was witness to the crime and an accused in the case is being separately tried in a juvenile justice court.
This is the fastest judgement in a rape case in Odisha. Last month, a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra had asked all the high courts across the country to ensure fasttracking of trials of all cases related to sexual assault on children.
The apex court had also asked high courts to instruct trial courts not to grant unnecessary adjournments during trials of cases under Pocso Act.
Altogether, 21 witnesses were examined by the court during the course of hearing, the special public prosecutor said, adding that the quick judgement would boost people’s faith in judicial system.
The 15-year-old girl’s mother had said in her complaint that her daughter, a Class IX student of Sasan area in the district, was on her way home from a local market on May 2 when the juvenile approached her for a conversation, news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted a police officer said.
The boy took her to an isolated place, raped her and abandoned her. The girl was then spotted by five other youths, who also took turns to rape her, the officer said quoting the first information report (FIR).
Based on the complaint, the police arrested the six accused over the next three days.