New Delhi: Four years after five men abducted a 30-year-old call centre executive from south Delhi and gangraped her, a Delhi court yesterday convicted them on the basis of DNA tests.
Convicting them in the 2010 case, Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said: “...the DNA report clearly demonstrates that the victim had been raped by these five accused.”
Shamshad, Usman, Shahid alias Chota Billi, Iqbal alias Bada Billi and Kamruddin were convicted on various charges dealing with abduction and gangrape. The punishment will be announced Friday.
The convicts’ families were disappointed over the judgment and vowed to challenge it in the high court. The packed courtroom was full of the convicts’ relatives.
The court also relied on witness testimony.
“The deposition of witnesses is in sync with each other and corroborates one another’s version. There remains no doubt that the victim was abducted in a pick-up vehicle by five persons and subjected to gangrape,” the judge said. “The scrutiny of the evidence ... inevitably demonstrates that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the charges,” the judge said. The court held that the identity of the accused and of the vehicle used in the crime was not in doubt. The five convicts were present in the court when the ruling came. The father of convict Shahid said his son has been falsely implicated.
“My son is innocent... I will challenge the verdict in the high court,” the devastated man told IANS.
According to police, the five men abducted the woman, who hailed from the northeast, at 12.40am on Novemebr 24, 2010 while she was walking home with a friend after her shift had ended.
The abductors took her to Mangolpuri, raped her and dumped her on a deserted road there. The five were arrested from Mewat in Haryana. After the incident, Delhi Police ordered all BPO companies in Delhi and the National Capital Region to drop women employees home while providing them security after 8pm. IANS
