VELLORE: Four years after a 20-year-old Dalit girl was gang-raped by a gang of six youth, the District Special Sessions Court on Friday sentenced them to 10 years rigorous imprisonment (RI). Also, the court slapped a fine of `2,000 on five of them, who belong to the SC community, and `3000 on a youth belonging to an intermediate caste.
The Special Sessions Court Judge R V Deenadhayalan found A Rajan alias Sounder Rajan (27), Boonai alias C Prabhakaran (27), Sathish alias S Saravanan (24) and Kollan alias N Vijaya Kumar (28) of Anna Nagar at Ariyur Malaikodi, M Vaithiyavelan (23) and L Bhuvanendhiran (22) of Periya Sekkanur guilty of abducting, gang-raping and unnatural offence against the victim Rekha (name changed) of Ariyur Malaikodi.
The judge awarded a total of 38.1 years of RI, including three 10 years of RI, to the prime accused Rajan. While Prabhakaran and Kumar were awarded 28.1 years of RI, including two 10 years RI, the three others were awarded a total of 18.1 years of RI under various sections. “The imprisonment awarded to the six under various sections will run concurrently, which means they have to undergo a total of 10 years of RI,” said the Special Public Prosecutor V K Jayapal, citing the judgement. The victim’s mother Vimala had lodged a complaint with the All Women Police, Vellore, against the six on July 20, 2010. Rekha, according to the complaint, had gone to a shop in Ariyur to recharge her mobile phone about 7.30 pm on July 19, 2010. On her way home, Rajan and five others abducted her and took her to a deserted place. “They raped her repeatedly, besides forcing her into an unnatural sex act,” said the government pleader.
The police arrested the six youth and filed a case against them. While sections 147 (rioting), 341, 366 and 376 (2) (g) of IPC were slapped against them, police invoked section 377 (unnatural offence) of the IPC against Rajan, Prabhakaran and Vijaya Kumar. The police also invoked the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Rajan of intermediate case, while the five others belonged to the SC community.
A total of 13 out of 18 witnesses had been examined on behalf of prosecution. “All witnesses confirmed the criminal act of the accused. The medical report also proved that the girl was gang-raped,” added the Special Public Prosecutor.
On hearing the arguments and verifying the material evidence, the Special Sessions Court judge found the six youth guilty under all sections invoked and pronounced the judgement. They were lodged in Vellore Central Prison for Men.