Delhi HC upholds conviction of two men in gang rape, murder case, modifies sentence

New Delhi [India], September 1 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the conviction of two men in a 2012 gang rape and murder case.
However, the court modified the sentence awarded for murder to rigorous imprisonment of life not less than 20 years without remission.
The deceased was gang raped in a taxi and thereafter was murdered by strangulation, in the Nehru Place area of New Delhi on April 24, 2012.
The high court observed, "Considering the brutality of the act right in the heart of Delhi which is usually patrolled by police shows the depraved evil mentality of the appellants, who acted with complete impunity with no fear of either the life or consequence of their act and dignity of the deceased victim."
The victim was gang raped in a taxi and murdered. Her body was found in Nehru Place area in the morning of April 24, 2012 near metro pillar.
The trial court had awarded Sikander Singh alias Soni and Pradeep imprisonment for life for murder not less than 20 years, life imprisonment for gang rape and 3 years imprisonment for disappearance of evidence on July 1, 2017.
The division bench of justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal said that the Prosecution has been able to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt and the judgement of trial court on conviction is duly upheld.
The order on sentence by the learned trial court is modified to the extent that life sentence for the offence punishable under section 302/34 will be for rigorous imprisonment for life not less than 20 years without remission, the division bench added. The rest of sentence for other offence of gang rape and disappearance shall remain the same.
The bench observed, "From the nature of injuries in the post mortem report, it is evident that the deceased put up a brave resistance before the two appellants who overpowered her physically, caused grievous injuries on her body, raped and eventually strangulated her."
Thereafter they attempted to erase the evidence by dumping the body on the roadside and extracted her belongings and put them in different locations, the high court added.
The bench said that all critical aspects, chain of circumstantial evidence are aligned, consistent and cogent pointing out the guilt of the appellants for rape and murder by strangulation of the deceased.
The perusal of the evidence, particularly the testimony of IO Ishwar Singh and other members of the police team who reached the place of incident as to the condition of the deceased and the subsequent comprehensive scientific analysis including the post mortem, the DNA profile, blood examination, biological examination and the viscera report would show that the appellants brutally raped the deceased in their car having picked her from the Defence Colony market and after stranguting her dumped her body on the road near the bushes on the roadside leading from Kalkaji Temple to Satyam Cinema, Nehru Place Metro Flyover adjacent to metro pillar no. 127 order of September 1, 2022 reads.
On the hand of deceased name of Javed, trishul and damroo were tattooed. Her body was identified by her husband Javed.