New Delhi: A Delhi court has sentenced two men, including a senior citizen, to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for gang-raping a 16-year-old-girl in 2003.
The court sent 65-year-old Ran Singh and Sri Bhagwan, 44, to jail after holding them guilty of gangrape and criminal intimidation and also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on each of them.
"I am of the considered opinion that the ends of justice can be met by sentencing convicts Ran Singh and Sri Bhagwan to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years each," additional sessions judge M C?Gupta said.
According to police, a case was registered in December 2003 on the basis of the girl`s complaint in which she alleged that she was gangraped by Singh and Bhagwan, who had taken her to a farm house here on the pretext of providing her a job.
She had said in her complaint that Singh was known to her mother, who was working as a guard, and he had assured her that he would get the girl employed.
On December 6, 2003, Singh came to her house with Bhagwan and told her that she will have to go to meet a person for the job and on the next day, they came in a car and took her to a farm house here, police said.
At the farm house, both Singh and Bhagwan raped her and threatened her that she would be killed if she disclosed the incident to anyone, police said, adding they later on dropped her home.
When her mother asked her about the job, she narrated the entire incident after which her mother informed the police and a case was registered, they said.
During the trial, both Singh and Bhagwan denied all the
allegations levelled against them and claimed that they have been falsely implicated.
Their counsel argued that the testimony of the girl was full of material contradictions and she had lodged the complaint to implicate the two men.
The court, however, convicted Singh and Bhagwan observing that the testimony of the victim was clear and "trustworthy".
"The version of this witness (victim) on the core spectrum of crime has remained intact. There is nothing in her statement to suggest that she had any animus against the accused persons to falsely implicate them in the case," the court said.
"I am of the considered opinion that as far as involvement of accused Ran Singh and Sri Bhagwan in the commission of the offences... Is concerned, the same is sufficiently established by cogent and reliable evidence and in the ultimate analysis, the prosecution has been able to bring the guilt home to the accused Ran Singh and Sri Bhagwan beyond reasonable doubt...," the judge said.
