Delhi HC upholds life sentences awarded to 3 men for raping minor

New Delhi [India], November 3 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed three appeals against life imprisonment for raping a minor in 2011. One of the appellants was convicted of rape whereas two others were convicted of gang rape. The High Court upheld the life sentences awarded to them by the trial court in 2018.
The victim was first abducted by her relative on the pretext of getting her gift from his company and was raped at his residence in a semi-conscious state on April 8, 2011. When the convict was sleeping, she escaped from there and asked for help on the road. A car driven by Bijender was stopped and assured the victim to drop her safely at her home.
The three men present in the car gang-raped her in the jungle of the Dwarka area. Anyhow, she managed to escape from the clutches of Bijender and requested help from the cars passing from there in the night.
A division bench of Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal dismissed the appeal moved by the Appellant, Praveen Kumar and Vinod Kumar.
The division bench said, "Considering the manner in which the offences were committed by the appellants, this Court finds no error in the order on sentence, directing the appellants to undergo life imprisonment."
One of the accused Bijender could not have been arrested and was declared as the proclaimed offender (PO).
"In view of the cogent and convincing testimony of the prosecutrix, duly corroborated by the facts that Bijender was apprehended when she called for help from the people sitting in cars going at that time. Soon thereafter, her medical was conducted, and she got her statement recorded wherein she implicated the Appellant, Bijender and two other accused whom she could identify on being produced and the DNA report, this Court finds no error in the judgment convicting the appellants for offences as noted above," the division bench said in the judgement.
The Court observed, "As Appellant is concerned, he owed a fiduciary relationship with the victim and asserting the said relationship, he tricked the parents of the victim to send her with him so that he could avail of a gift in name of his daughter from the company, which gift
was never to be given."
"Thus in a very pre-planned manner taking advantage of his relationship, he brought the minor victim to his house and committed rape," the Court said.
As regards appellants Vinod Kumar and Praveen Kumar are concerned, as noted above, after the co-accused Bijender (PO) assured her to safely drop the victim at her house, alongwith Vinod Kumar and Praveen Kumar took her to a jungle area and committed gang rape on the victim, who ran out of their clutches using courage and presence of mind, the court said.
These three appeals were moved to challenge the judgment of December 15, 2018, whereby H (Appellant) was convicted for offences punishable under Section 366 (Abduction) and 376 (Rape) IPC.
Appellants Parveen Kumar and Vinod Kumar were convicted for offences punishable under Section 366 (Abduction) IPC read with 34 IPC and Section 376(2)(g) (Gang Rape) IPC.
The trial court had awarded H (Appellant) imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for an offence punishable under Section 376 IPC and rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years and a fine of Rs50,000 for an offence punishable under Section 366 IPC.
Appellants Parveen Kumar and Vinod Kumar were awarded imprisonment for life for an offence punishable under Section 376(2)(g) IPC and to pay a fine of Rs. 1 lakh each and rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years and a fine of Rs50,000 for an offence punishable under Section 366 read with 34 IPC.
Delhi Police had registered a case on the basis of the statement of the victim. She stated that she was studying in class 10th.
She also stated that she had an elder brother who got married 4-5 years ago to the daughter of the appellant.
On April 7, 2011, the appellant and his wife came to their house. On 8th April 2011 when he was going back, he said to her father that his company was giving gifts to the girls and the victim should accompany her as his daughter so that he could get a gift for her from his company.
He took her to his house and raped her. At night she left the house secretly, as she was scared. While she was walking, she saw an Indica CAR. The boy driving the Indica CAR said his name was Bijender from Haryana.
When he offered to help her, she got into his Indica car where two other boys also sat in the said car. After that, driver Bijender started taking the car towards the jungle at Dwarka and stopped there.
When she asked the driver, about the reason to stop the car, he started evading the answer. The two boys sitting at the back started misbehaving with her and when she objected, they assaulted her.
One of the two boys got down and then the other boy forcibly raped her in the rear seat of the car. Thereafter, the other boy came and forcibly raped her as well. When the second boy was committing sexual assault on her, she complained of stomach ache and that she had to go for urination.
On this pretext, she got down from the car and started running. The driver Bijender followed her and caught hold of her because of which she fell down and suffered injuries to her
knees.
The driver also fell down and suffered injuries on the knees. Hearing the noise one car stopped and called the PCR van. The PCR van took her and the driver to the Police Station. However, his two associates succeeded in running away. Later on, the three appellants were arrested and charge-sheeted.