Patan’s rapist gang gets life term

Fast-track court judge SC Shrivastav on Friday sentenced the six teachers of Patan PTC, accused in a gangrape case, to life imprisonment.

Earlier in the day, the judge had found the six accused - Manish Parmar, Mahendra Prajapati, Ashwin Parmar, Kiran Patel, Suresh Patel and Atul Patel — guilty of raping an 18-year old Dalit girl student of the college. The court also ordered each of the six convicted rapists to pay to the victim Rs10,000 each as compensation.

The six teachers were facing charges under section 120B and section 376 (2) (g) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 120B deals with criminal conspiracy, while section 376 (2) (g) deals with gangrape.

The accused were also charged with rape, sexual assault, outraging the modesty of a woman and having in their possession pornographic CDs.

By 10 am on Friday, the fast-track court, which is housed in the Sardar Patel Shopping Centre here, was jam-packed with media-persons, friends and  kin of the victim and the accused, and many residents of Patan.

At 11 am, judge Shrivastav entered the courtroom but reserved the judgment till 3 pm. At 3:10 pm, she announced that all the six accused had been found guilty under IPC sections 120B and 376 (2) (g). She, however, acquitted the accused of all charges under the Atrocities Act.

On being asked if they had anything to say about the verdict, Manish Parmar said he had been falsely implicated in the case. He claimed that he was innocent and requested the court to reduce the sentence.

Kiran Patel, who has a physical disability, requested the judge to take his disability into consideration and award him a lighter sentence. Patel’s lawyer Bharat Barot submitted that his client suffers from a 50 per cent disability and, for this reason, should be given a lighter sentence.

Ashwin Parmar’s lawyer, ML Choudhary, submitted that a life sentence is too harsh in the case. He pleaded that as Ashwin Parmar was the sole breadwinner of his family and had no movable or immovable property, his sentence should be reduced by 10 years.

He argued that the court could be lenient because, under special circumstances, the sentence for gangrape can be reduced.

Defence lawyers of the other accused, too, sought leniency for their clients and asked that they be awarded lighter sentences. Suresh Patel’s advocate Sunil Shah argued that as the accused had no prior criminal record, he should be shown leniency.

Citing Supreme Court judgments, special public prosecutor Naina Bhatt told the court that the Patan gangrape was actually a case of ‘multiple gangrape’.