All 5 accused in Delhi’s BPO employee rape case convicted

The five had abducted the 30-year-old from the North East, taken her to a secluded area in Mongolpuri and raped her

NEW DELHI: All the five accused in the sensational abduction and gangrape of a BPO executive at Dhaula Kuan in 2010 were held quilty by a Delhi court.

The sentence will be pronounced on Friday.

The five had abducted the 30-year old BPO executive from the North East, taken her to a secluded area in Mongolpuri and gangraped her.

Shamshad alias Khutkan, Usman alias Kale, Shahid alias Chhota Billi, Iqbal alias Bada Billi and Kamruddin alias Mobile, had abducted the victim on November 24, 2010 while she was walking home with her friend after her shift ended.

According to police, the accused took the victim to Mongolpuri, gangraped her, and left her on an isolated road there.

“Meanwhile, the victim’s friend, the prime witness in the case, alerted the police control room about the abduction. The police later arrested the accused from Mewat in Haryana,” police said in its charge sheet.

All the five convicts had claimed innocence and said that they were falsely implicated in the case.

They are facing trial under

sections 376(2)(G) (gangrape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 365 (abduction) of the Indian Penal Code.

During the investigation, Kamruddin, Shahid and Iqbal had refused to undergo test identification parade (TIP) after their arrest while the victim had identified Shamshad and Usman.

During the trial, the police claimed that the accused had confessed to their crime.

According to charge sheet, after his arrest, Kamruddin had expressed remorse over the

act before police. The case had forced Delhi Police to issue an order to all BPOS in Delhi NCR to drop women employees home safely and provide them security during night.

The incident also led police to issue specific directions to PCR vans to remain visible on roads and that one officer should remain outside the vehicle round the clock.

JUDGE TICKS OFF POLICE’S FORENSIC LAB

The inefficiency of Delhi’s only Forensics Science Laboratory (FSL) was on display yet again during the trial after the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) called their methods “not understandable”.

ASJ Virender Bhat pulled up the lab for failing to mark the evidence in the prescribed manner, which gave defence counsel Amit Srivastava the opportunity to accuse the police of planting DNA evidence on one of the accused.

“There has been tampering in the case properties by police personnel and now there is no acknowledgement of the sample seal from the FSL,” the defence counsel contended.

Usually, DNA and other forensic samples are sealed by policemen and sent to the FSL for analysis.

The lab must then issue an acknowledgment of receipt for the evidence. The seal and acknowledgment help maintain and corroborate the chain of custody of evidence. But the court noted that “acknowledgments issued by FSL in almost every case in this court” are not mentioned on the sample seals.

Calling the practice incomprehensible, the court said directions needed to be issued to the FSL officials to discontinue this practice.