Life imprisonment for five in rape, blackmail case

A court here today sentenced five persons to life imprisonment after convicting them for raping a minor girl two years ago and blackmailing her.
The special-cum-session court judge Dipti Mohapatra also sentenced another person to three years rigorous imprisonment (RI) for his involvement in recording the sexual assault on a mobile phone and subsequently releasing it through the social media.
The court slapped a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on each of the five and in default the convicts would have to undergo RI of further six months.
The penalty money if paid would be given to the victim, the judge ruled.

The five convicts Bishnu Kishan, Prashanta Dansana, Jayamangal Pradhan, Ranjan Oram and Muna Oram were found guilty under section 376 D and section C of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
The other person Sunil Mirdha was sentenced to RI for three years after he was found guilty under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) of IPC.

The incident took place on July 22, 2014 when the victim went to Jamadarpali area with a boy. The five threatened the boy and forced him to move to a distance from the site of the incident.

While one stood guard, the others raped the minor girl. One of them recorded the assault on a mobile phone.
The victim was rescued by the people from a nearby village after hearing her shouts.
The convicts fled but later used the photos to blackmail her. When she failed to fulfill their demands they circulated the pictures as MMS in the social media.
The father of the victim had lodged a complaint with the police on October 18, 2014 after the MMS was circulated.