Court sends two youths to 10 yrs in jail for gangraping minor

Two youths have been sentenced to 10 years in jail for gangraping a 13-year-old girl in a temple by a Delhi court which said the minor's testimony was "reliable".
The court awarded the jail term to Mahender and Vinay Mishra, both 25 years of age, for gangraping the minor, saying the girl's testimony inspired confidence and the two youths had a common intention to rape her.
The court, however, acquitted Vinay, Mahender and his mother, who was also an accused, of the charge of wrongfully confining the girl.
"From the evidence on record, the testimony of prosecution witness 1 (girl) is proved to be reliable and inspire confidence and it proved that both the accused persons namely Vinay Mishra and Mahender Singh have acted in furtherance of their common intention in committing rape with the minor," Additional Sessions Judge Rajneesh Kumar Gupta said.

"Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, both the convicts are sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years each and a fine of Rs 5000 each under section 376(2)(g) (gangrape) of the IPC," the court said.
According to the prosecution, a missing complaint was lodged by the girl's father on March 26, 2010 at Hari Nagar Police Station and during investigation, the minor was rescued from Mahender's house in Kotla Vihar here the next day.

The girl told the court that she had gone to a park from where Mahender, Vinay and another person took her to a temple were she was raped by them in a room. She had raised an alarm but they gagged her and she remained in the temple the whole night, she said.

The girl was later on taken to Mahender's house where she was confined by his mother. On the next day, Mahender and Vinay were arrested by the court while the woman surrendered in the court later on, the police had told the court.
During the trial, both the youths had denied the prosecution's charges. At the time of sentencing, the convicts sought leniency on the grounds that they have to support their families and they have already spent more than four years in jail during the trial.
The court said the testimony of the girl was corroborated by her statement recorded before a magistrate.

"The girl has been cross examined by the accused but no such material has been come on record which would make her testimony unreliable. She has no grudge or reasons to depose against the accused persons," it said.