NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday sentenced five men to life imprisonment for gangraping a 52-year-old Danish woman at knife-point near the New Delhi railway station two years ago.
The court relied on the DNA and other forensic reports, including the report on detailed medical examination of the woman conducted at Copenhagen.
Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar awarded the jail term to convicts Mahender alias Ganja, 25, Mohd Raja, 25, Raju, 23, Arjun, 21 and Raju Chakka, 30.
The court, which awarded them life imprisonment till their death, observed that the involvement of the accused was proved beyond reasonable doubt through the scientific evidence in the DNA report. The court also imposed a fine of `83,000 each on Raju and Raju Chakka, `93,000 each on Mahender and Mohd Raja and `1,03,000 on Arjun.
The court has held these five men guilty for the offences under IPC sections 376 (D) (gang rape), 395 (dacoity), 366 (kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention). Besides sentencing these convicts for the offence of gangrape, the court also awarded varying jail terms to them for other offences for which they were held guilty.
“The DNA profile was generated from clothes of the victim which was seized from the spot in the night of incident itself and those DNA profile matched with the DNA profile generated from the samples of the accused persons. Thus, it is clear that accused persons are the offenders who committed the offence,” the court said in its 69-page judgment. According to the police, the nine persons, all vagabonds, had robbed and gangraped the Danish tourist at knife-point on the night of January 14, 2014, after leading her to a secluded spot close to the Divisional Railway Officers’ Club near the railway station. The sixth accused, 56-year-old Shyam Lal had died in February this year and proceedings against him were abated.
Three other accused in the case are juveniles and inquiry against them is in progress before the Juvenile Justice Board. The Delhi Police had sought maximum punishment for the convicts, ie. imprisonment till the remainder of their natural life, saying the crime was committed in a barbaric and inhuman manner.
The victim had come here on January 1, 2014, and stayed for a couple of days before leaving for Agra. After visiting several places, she returned to Delhi on January 13, 2014, and stayed in a hotel in Paharganj near the station.
The next day when she was returning to her hotel, she lost her way and had asked one of the accused for directions when the men waylaid and gangraped her.