Four convicts sentenced to life in tele-operator gangrape case

Nearly eight months after the gangrape of an 18-year-old telephone operator in the Shakti Mills compound here, a sessions court today sentenced four convicts in the case to life term, observing that showing mercy to them would be a "mockery of justice" and will send out a wrong signal to the society.
"In some cases, mercy is justified but in this case it would be displaced and would be a mockery of justice," said Principal Sessions Judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi while awarding life imprisonment to Vijay Jadhav (19), Mohammad Qasim Hafiz Shaikh alias Kasim Bengali (21), Mohammad Ansari (28) and Mohammad Ashfaque Shaikh.

The court also observed that offence of rape is "serious and brutal" and it violates the victim and the society at large.
"It is violation of fundamental right of Right to Life guaranteed under the Constitution", judge Joshi said.
The court held that the violation of this right has to be kept in mind coupled with the fact that offence of rape inflicts pain for life.
"The offence of rape is an untold trauma and agony with which the victim will have to live throughout her life," it said.

The court also held that the manner in which the offence was committed reflects the depravity of the accused.

"The crime was not momentary but a premeditated outcome of criminal conspiracy. They (the accused) sexually ravished the girl and left her in a pathetic state," Joshi said pronouncing the sentence.
"We need to respond to the cry of the victim and uphold the collective conscience of the society," she said.
The judge said the system does not make everyone a criminal. "It is the individual who commits the crime. The society or system or web space (internet) cannot be blamed to take a lenient view," she said.
"Stern view needs to be taken and a proper signal has to be sent out to the society even if in this case the accused are not reformed, others like them will be deterred. Object of criminal justice is both reformation and deterrence," the court said.