MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently upheld the conviction of five persons in a case pertaining to the gang sexual assault of a 23-year-old Delhi-based bank employee at Kumbakonam in December 2018.
A Bench of justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan, who passed the order, confirmed the life sentence of the four youths who committed the sexual assault, but reduced the punishment of the autorickshaw driver, who caused the incident, from seven years to three years of rigorous imprisonment.
According to the prosecution, the victim had come to Kumbakonam on December 9, 2018, to attend a six-day training programme. When she reached the railway station, she hired an autorickshaw to reach the hotel where the programme organisers had arranged her stay. But instead of taking her to the hotel directly, the driver roamed around the town. The victim, suspecting foul play, fled from the autorickshaw.
However, four youths, who pretended to be patrol police, approached her and in the guise of helping her to reach the hotel, took her to an isolated place and sexually assaulted her, videographed the same and dropped her at the hotel. Thanjavur Mahila Court found the auto driver and the four youths guilty and convicted them in January 2020, challenging which they filed appeals.
The Bench, hearing the appeals, observed that the video evidence of the ordeal undergone by the victim at the hands of the four youths shocked the conscience of the court. Thankfully, the victim had the will to withstand both the incident and the trial (cross-examination), the judges said. Her evidence impels the court to confirm not only the conviction but also the trial court’s observation that the convicts should not be granted remission, they added.