Four convicts in tele-operator gangrape case get life sentence

Nearly eight months after the gangrape of a telephone operator in the abandoned Shakti Mills compound here, a sessions court today sentenced four persons convicted in the case to life imprisonment.
While sentencing the four convicts, the court observed that the offence of rape was serious and brutal.
"The offence violates the victim and the society at large. This is also the violation of the fundamental right of Right to Life and it should be kept in mind coupled with the fact that the offence of rape has caused agony on her mind," observed principal sessions judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi.
The court also held that the convicts - Vijay Jadhav (19), Mohammad Qasim Hafiz Shaikh alias Kasim Bengali (21), Mohammad Ansari (28) and Mohammad Ashfaque Shaikh - did not commit the offence on the spur of the moment but it was a pre-meditated conspiracy.

After the court pronounced the quantum of punishment to the four, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam filed an application seeking framing of additional charges on the three common convicts in the photojournalist gangrape case, for repeated offence under section 376(e) of the IPC.
Nikam said that the maximum penalty under section 376(e) of IPC is capital punishment.

The court adjourned the photojournalist gangrape case till March 24 to decide on the application after which it will proceed with the pronouncing of quantum of punishment.
The court had yesterday convicted five men for gangrape of two women, criminal conspiracy, common intention, unnatural sex, criminal intimidation, wrongful restraint, assault, destruction of evidence under IPC and other relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.

A total of seven persons, including two minors, were arrested in connection with the two gangrapes involving a telephone operator and a photojournalist in July-August 2013. Three of the accused are common to both the cases.
While Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali and Mohammad Ansari were convicted in both the cases, Siraj Khan was found guilty in the photojournalist gangrape case (of August 22, last year) and Mohammad Ashfaque Shaikh in the telephone operator gangrape case at the same compound on July 31, last year.
Two minors, one in each case, are being tried by the Juvenile Justice Board separately.