On Friday, the Sessions Court of Aurangabad gave life imprisonment to 4 people accused in the infamous ‘Sundarwadi Gangrape’ case. The 4 accused had raped a 22-year-old Govt. employee in Aug 2015.
Besides life imprisonment, a fine of Rs 50,000 have been imposed on each of the accused, of which a sum of Rs 1 lakh has been directed to be given as compensation to the victim.
“This is the first conviction case in the district under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018," said Public prosecutor Sudesh Shirsath Sai.
Additional sessions judge S S Bhishma pronounced the judgement, convicting Tayyab Shaikh (32) of Sundarwadi, Taleb Ali (20), Jamil Shaikh (19) & Ashfaq Shaikh (20) from Hinanagar, Chiklathana.
The accused have also been slapped with six months imprisonment under section 323 of the IPC (voluntarily causing hurt), besides the life imprisonment & the fine. They will also serve imprisonment for an year each for intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of trust & criminal intimidation.
The Court has ordered that all these imprisonments would run concurrently. It also stated that each of the convicts would have to undergo additional imprisonment for three years if they fail to pay the fine of Rs 50,000.
On the night of Aug 27, 2015, a Govt. employee & her male friend had gone for a ride on the latter’s bike after work. They were sitting in a deserted farm behind a school in Sundarwadi Shivar on the Jalgaon bypass road here. Around 8.30pm, the four accused, who were on two motorcycles, came there & started misbehaving with them. When the man objected to their behaviour, the suspects ruthlessly assaulted the couple. They took turns in raping the woman after tying her friend to a nearby tree.
The two somehow managed to reach the road, after the accused left. They found a police patrolling van, which rushed them to a hospital. An offence was registered at Chikalthana police station of Aurangabad rural. Assistant inspector Mahesh Andhale said that the victim & her friend had managed to note the registration number of the bikes, that eventually helped the police to zero in on the suspects.
“The identification of the accused by the victim, followed by DNA reports, played a crucial role in bagging conviction in the case,” said Shirsath.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
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