High court rejects bail plea of Patan rape convicts

A division bench of the Gujarat high court, comprising justices AL Dave and SR Brahmbhatt, has rejected the bail applications moved by six teachers convicted in the Patan gang rape case.

The court observed, “If the bail is granted, it will send a wrong signal to the society. Besides, looking at the case papers, there is enough medical evidence.” Kiran Patel, Ashwin Parmar, Suresh Patel, Atula Patel and Mahendra Prajapati, all teachers of the Patan DIET, were convicted life imprisonment by the special fast-track court judge SC Srivastave, this year.

All of them had challenged the HC order and had applied for bail. The teachers contended that the victim had lodged police complaint at a later stage, though they had plenty of opportunities to disclose about the incident before that. The victim leveled the allegation on January 31, 2008. Besides, the place and time of the crime mentioned are also highly improbable, they alleged in their plea.