A division bench of justices VK Tahilramani and Ajey Gadkari of the Bombay high court will hear on Oct 31 the confirmation petition on the death sentences awarded to the three convicts–Vijay Jadhav (19), Kasim Bengali (21) and Mohammed Salim Ansari (28)–in the Shakti Mills gang rape case.
They adjourned the hearing in the case after being informed by public prosecutors Sandeep Shinde and Poornima Kantharia that the convicts' petition challenging the invocation of amended section 376(e) on them was to be heard by another division bench on Oct 28.
Section 376(e) was added after the three were convicted in the gang rape case (of a telephone operator) in July 2013. The amended charge provides for a maximum sentence of death in the case of repeat offence of rape.
The sessions court had on March 21 sentenced them to life imprisonment for the crime.
The confirmation petition was filed by the state on April 15. It sought confirmation of the death sentence awarded to the three who figured in both the gang rapes that took place in Shakti Mills compound in 2013.
As per the law, a death sentence awarded by a trial court has to be confirmed by the high court. The convicts have still not filed any appeal against their death sentence.
On April 4, the sessions court convicted Jadhav, Bengali, Ansari and Siraj Khan for raping a photojournalist on the deserted premises of the defunct Shakti Mills in central Mumbai on Aug 22, 2013.
Siraj was awarded life imprisonment; the other three were given death penalty under IPC section 376 (e).
Jadhav, Bengali and Ansari were earlier convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the court for gang raping a telephone operator in the same premises in July, 2013.
Since it was their second conviction in a gang rape case, the prosecution sought death penalty for the trio by framing the additional charge of repeat offence under section 376 (e). This section was introduced in the IPC after the Dec 2012 Delhi gang rape.
The sessions court, while awarding death, had observed that the offence was a pre-planned one and that the accused had shown no mercy to the victim and had no remorse afterward.
"Such offences must not be tolerated. If leniency is shown, it will be misplaced sympathy and travesty of justice," the court had said.
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