The sessions court on Wednesday convicted five youths for gang-raping a 30-year- old woman in 2013. The court presided over by Judge Vrushali joshi sentenced the accused to twenty years in jail along with a fine of Rs11,500 each.
The court held Rohidas Gaikwad, 19, Shahid Sheikh, 20, Ganesh Ingle, 20, Imran Sheikh, 19 and Ganesh Gurav, 18 guilty of charges of gang rape, sodomy, causing grievous hurt, house trespassing and criminal intimidation.
Meanwhile, the two other accused involved in the crime were sent to the juvenile justice home since they were minors.
The prosecution's case dates back to March 15, 2013. the survivor, who used to stay in a hut next to Matunga railway station, was raped by seven men, of which two were minors. As per the case, the survivor and her husband had been living in the hut for four years and they used to earn their livelihood by farming. The survivor in her statement claimed, "My husband knew the two minor accused as they used to go on walks together for a smoke. However, around 6pm on March 15, the two minors and a few others started passing lewd comments on me, but when we threatened them saying we would go to the police to complain, they ran away."
"Since it was too hot outside, we had kept our door open in the night. At around 11.30pm, the two minor accused reached our hut and called my husband out. Once he had gone out, the two minors and five other men assaulted my husband with bamboos, forcefully entered our house and sexually assaulted me. I pleaded them to leave me but the assault continued till 1.15am. Finally, when they left our place, my husband somehow entered the hut. However, since he could see the men roaming on the railway tracks, we decided to approach the police. However, since both of us were badly assaulted, we could not reach the police station. So, we slept at Matunga railway station," her statement further reads.
The next day, the couple approached Dadar police station and registered a complaint against the seven accused. The police then arrested the accused.
Public prosecutor Nilima Kasture said that the prosecution examined eleven witnesses in the case.
The court, while holding the accused guilty of the charges, asked them if they wanted to say anything about the quantum of punishment. To this, they claimed that they were implicated in the case.
However, the advocate for the accused, while arguing on the quantum of sentence claimed that all the five accused were aged between 20 and 22 years and had no criminal background and thus pleaded the court to award them minimum punishment.
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