Delhi gang-rape case: Court sentences two to imprisonment till death

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday sentenced two rickshaw pullers to imprisonment for the remainder of their life for raping a woman in New Delhi on the pretext of taking her home.

Refusing to show leniency, the court said they committed the heinous crime on a hapless woman who had lost her way.

Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar held UP resident Ehsaan and Bihar resident Umesh Giri guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment for remainder of their natural lives.

"Instead of helping her, Ehsaan induced her to accompany him to the place of incident on the pretext of dropping her at her destination where his associate Giri joined him and they both in furtherance of their common intention committed gang rape on her," the court said.

The court, which imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 each on the two convicts, said the amount shall be paid to the victim.

It also took into consideration the brutality inflicted by the two men on the victim.

An FIR was registered in September last year on the allegation that the woman was raped by two rickshaw pullers at a bus stand near Mata Sundri College in Central Delhi.

The woman was living separately from her husband and two children. Following a quarrel with her brother, with whom she was residing in UP, the woman somehow managed to reach New Delhi railway station in the night.

At the station, the accused Ehsaan assured her he would drop her to her destination but took her to a deserted place where co-accused Giri joined him in raping the woman.

Another rickshaw puller, who witnessed the crime, caught hold of one of the accused and informed the police.

During the trial, the duo claimed they were falsely implicated by the eye witness as he wanted to extort money.

The court, while holding them guilty, relied on the depositions of the woman and the eye witness saying they were in full consonance with medical and scientific evidence brought on record by the prosecution.

Public prosecutor A T Ansari sought maximum punishment for the convicts saying the offence committed by them was not only diabolical, gruesome and brutal but also alarming.

He contended that the convicts took advantage of the woman's vulnerable condition and said a strong message needs to be conveyed to the society to prevent repetition of such offence.

The court also praised the prosecution for bringing overwhelming corroborative evidence in the form of deposition of eye witness, medical evidence in the form of injury sustained by the woman, and scientific evidence which established the guilt of the accused persons.