HC raps accused in minor girl gangrape case for seeking discharge

The Madras High Court Thursday dismissed a plea for discharge by one of the 17 accused in the gang rape of an 11-year-old hearing impaired girl here last year, terming it an "audacious move".

Noting that the case shocked the moral conscience of the society at large, Justice V Parthiban rejected the revision petition by Deena Dayalan, challenging the trial court order declining his discharge.

"It is indeed an audacious move to file the present revision petition against the order passed by the trial court dismissing the discharge petition, when, prima facie, there exist materials to proceed against him by the prosecution," Parthiban said.

The matter relates to the rape of a minor girl by a group of 17 people, mostly plumbers, housekeepers, security guards and lift operators, working at an apartment complex in Ayanavaram locality here.

The girl was allegedly sexually assaulted several times by the accused over seven months.

The matter came to light after the victim, a class 7 student, narrated her ordeal to her elder sister who then informed their parents following which the girl's father lodged a police complaint on July 15, 2018.

Out of the 17 accused in the case, Dayalan was arrayed as 12th accused.

The Mahila court had dismissed the discharge petition filed by him on December 12, 2018 against which he preferred the revision petition in the High Court.

"Instead of facing the trial to prove his innocence, the petitioner has approached the trial court to discharge him from the offences charged against him, expecting the trial court to pronounce his innocence at the very threshold," the judge said.

"His involvement in the incident, which gave rise to the charge of his and others, was not the run off the mill criminal case of sexual assault, which normally comes up for scrutiny before the criminal Court," he observed.

The judge also noted that it was the case, which shocked the moral conscience of the society at large when 17 perpetrators had committed an act of abominable sexual assault on the disabled girl who was below 12 years.

The way, in which the crime was reported to have been committed by the perpetrators, prima facie, appears to be a despicable act of giving vent to their carnal desire leading to commit horrendous sexual assault on the hapless victim girl, he said.

"The alleged act of perpetrators, to put it appropriately, is outrageously inhuman,wickedly laced with unalloyed perversion of the inconceivable kind," the court said, dismissing the petition.

"Such crimes in society need to be viewed strictly to save the children from the predatory sexual instinct of such men in the society.