Life terms for three in Manipal gang-rape case

A court here on Thursday sentenced, to life imprisonment, three men convicted for the 2013 gang-rape of a 22-year-old medical student at Manipal.

The convicted trio -- Yogish Poojary, Hariprasad Poojary and Anand -- were also fined Rs.1.10 lakh each for the heinous crime, including abduction of the victim, who hails from Kerala, when she was on way to her flat from her college library on the night of June 20, 2013.

Of the five convicted, other two - Balachandra and Harindra - were sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined Rs.5,000 each for destroying evidence in the shocking incident that rocked the southern state.

Balachandra is the brother of Yogish and Harindra, the brother of Hariprasad.

A major educational centre, Manipal is 5km from this famous temple town in Dakshina Kannada district in southern Karnataka.

District and Sessions Judge Shivashankar Amarannavar pronounced the punishment in the packed court hall amid tight security.

"The court had given maximum punishment to the convicted in the case, which I fought not only for the victim, but also for society," public prosecutor T.S. Jithuri told reporters outside the court premises.

The district police nabbed the convicted trio on June 27, after a week-long hunt for them in the district and across the state.