The assault which took place just four months after the Delhi gangrape had grabbed headlines with its shocking details; court said the crime was 'most grotesque'
The minor was found two days after she went missing. Pic /iStock
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday while convicting two men—Manoj and Pradeep—in the 2013 Gudiya gang rape case held that the crime committed was "most grotesque" and the "collective conscience of the community was shaken". "In our society, minor girls are worshipped as goddesses on certain occasions, but in the present case the victim child, who was aged about five years at the time of the incident had experienced exceptional depravity and extreme brutality. The crime against the victim was committed in a most grotesque and revolting manner and the collective conscience of the community was shaken," the court said.
Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra convicted the two under sections 366, 342, 376 D, 201, 307, 372(2) of the Indian Penal Code and certain sections of the POCSO Act. On April 15, 2013, the five-year-old girl was kidnapped and gang raped by her neighbour and his friend in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar. The accused had also inserted foreign objects in her privates, leading to grievous injuries.
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The minor was found two days later at a neighbour's rented accommodation—where the crime took place. She was in an unconscious state and was admitted to Delhi's AIIMS. Delhi Police had then registered a case and charged them for attempt to murder and rape.
'Conviction within 6 months'
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said there should be a system to ensure that conviction of rapists "took place within six months". His statement came after the verdict on Saturday. "Both the accused were convicted in the Gudiya rape case. It took seven years. Together we have to fix this system as soon as possible. If we want to end the mentality of assault against our sisters and daughters, then we have to have a system of convicting the rapists within six months of the cases," he tweeted.
I won't forgive: Asha Devi
Reacting to a tweet by lawyer Indira Jaising urging her to forgive the four men on death row for raping her daughter in 2012, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi said on Saturday, "Even if God asks me, I won't forgive them." The mother, who has been fighting for seven years to send her daughter's killers to the gallows, said, "People like them are a blot on society."
Commenting on Jaising's tweet, she added: "Who is she to tell or suggest to me to forgive them. What relation does she have with me. I have nothing to do with such people. She can be a relative of those (the convicts) that she is having a soft corner for."
Woman's body found
The semi-nude body of an unidentified woman, seemingly in her late 20s, was found near a police station in Bihar's Bhojpur district on Saturday morning. According to the police, prima facie it appears that the woman was raped before being murdered. The police had recovered the body from the backyard at the Kali temple near the Jogveer and Sikriyan railway line.
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