Korba:
A court here sentenced five men to death for the gang-rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, as well as the brutal killings of two of her family members in 2021 terming the crime as “extremely depraved, disgusting, bestial, and cowardly” that shook the collective conscience of society.
The convicts-Santram Manjhwar, Abdul Jabbar, Anil Kumar Sarthi, Pardeshi Ram, and Anand Ram Panika-were found guilty under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 302 (murder) and 376(2)(G) (gang rape), along with provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by the Fast Track Special Court in Korba district.
The sixth accused, Umashanakar Yadav, was sentenced to life imprisonment due to medical reasons, as it was determined he had undergone surgery that affected his ability to participate in the crime.
The death sentences will require confirmation from the Chhattisgarh High Court before being carried out, and the accused have the right to appeal the verdict in higher courts.
A copy of the order was made available on Monday.
The 16-year-old girl was gang raped in front of her father before being murdered, leaving the court with no option but to choose death penalty rather than the general rule of life imprisonment, the judge said.
The accused Santram and Abdul Jabbar took turns to rape the girl and the remaining accused played an active role in this act by supporting them, the ruling noted.
“This inhuman and cruel act of the accused is extremely depraved, disgusting, bestial and cowardly as they killed three innocent and weak persons to satisfy their lust. This act has hurt the collective conscience of the entire society,” the court said.
The accused had also killed a three-and-a-half year old girl and the father aged around 55-60 years.
Special public prosecutor Sunil Kumar Mishra on Wednesday said that while delivering the judgement on January 15, Additional Sessions Judge Dr Mamta Bhojwani held that this inhuman and cruel act of the accused is extremely perverted, heinous, brutal and cowardly.
The horrific incident took place on January 29, 2021, when the victims-residents of the Pahadi Korwa tribal community-were travelling home after being offered a lift by Manjhwar, employer of the 16-year-old girl’s father since July 2020.
On the way, they stopped at Korai village and Manjhwar consumed liquor following which the other men also joined him, as per the prosecution.
The men took the trio to the foot of a hill surrounded by forest near Gadhuproda where the 16-year-old was gang-raped in front of her father.
The teenaged girl was also bludgeoned with stones before she was dumped, in the injured state, in the forest leading to her death near Gadhuproda village under Lemru police station area of Korba district.
After thrashing all the victims with stones and sticks, the accused dumped them in the forest before fleeing from the scene, police said.
Four days after the crime, when the son of man who died approached the Lemru police station saying three members of their family were missing, cops swung into action and rounded up the six men on February 2, they said.
After questioning them, police reached the crime site the same day and found the injured teenager alive and two others dead. The rape victim died while being rushed to a local hospital, police said.
The victims belonged to the Pahadi Korwa tribal community, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).
Citing police investigation, Mishra said that Manjhwar was pressuring the teenage girl to become his second wife. When she and her family objected to this, the accused and his five associates raped and killed her and also murdered her two family members.
“With respect to the rest of the accused except Umashankar (Yadav), it is certainly concluded that despite the present gruesome incident being proved, if they are allowed to re-enter the society (prison is also a part of the society), then they may again proceed to commit any kind of crime and due to this reason there seems to be no possibility of their rehabilitation or reformation,” it said.
The incident happened with a poor family belonging to the Pahadi Korwa tribe, which has been adopted by the President of India, the court noted.
As soon as the news of this gruesome incident spread, there was widespread protest and anger not only in the state but also at the national level. This incident has shaken humanity, it said.
After the crime, the six men did not behave in any way to show that they had even the slightest remorse, the court observed.
“Punishment in proportion to the act committed by the accused is the demand of justice because justice is not done keeping in mind only the criminal but it is also necessary to pay equal attention to the victim who has been affected by that crime.
“Therefore, in the present case, this court is of the opinion that it is necessary to award the death sentence to the accused (except accused Umashankar),” the judge said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)