Criminal Appeal no- 401 of 2012
Bangalore District Court
BENCH: Hon’ble Mr Krishnamurthy, Hon’ble Mr D. Sangannavar, Hon’ble Mr Rajeshwar N Hegde
DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 22nd May 2017
RELEVANT SECTIONS:
- Section 427 IPC (whoever commits mischief and causes damage amounting to fifty rupees or more)
- Section 366 IPC (kidnaps or abducts any woman with intent to rape)
- Section 323 IPC (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt)
- Section 324 IPC (voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons)
- Section 395 IPC (Punishment for dacoity)
- Section 397 IPC (Robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt)
- Section 506[B] IPC (Punishment for criminal intimidation)
- Section 376[2]g IPC (commits gang-rape)
- Section 149 IPC (every member of unlawful assembly guilty for the offence committed in prosecution of common object)
BACK STORY
On the eve of 13 October 2012 around 9:15 PM a law student from Kathmandu along with her friend Nirmal was sitting inside a car (registration no-KL-020AH-8100) parked near the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Eight men including a juvenile surrounded their car with an intent of dacoity and rape. They possessed deadly weapons including rod, dragger, knife, rope and sickle. One of the accused hit the front window of the car with the rod shattering it and then they pulled the victim out of the car by her hair. When Nirmal tried to rescue her, he was also dragged to the near forest and was robbed of his phone and iPod. The victim was then threatened by showing deadly weapons and was forced to lie on the ground where she was raped by all the eight accused one by one. After repeatedly raping her, she was freed at around 12:30 AM near Gandhi Bhavan.
The victim filed her complaint regarding this incident on 14th October 2012 and the accused were arrested by the police on 10th September 2013. During the trial, the prosecution presented 33 witnesses, including Nirmal the main eye witness and also one of the injured in the incident and Balaraju, a police constable who was on patrolling duty that night. Balaraju received a kidnapping complaint regarding the victim woman, when he reached the campus he saw the white coloured car parked with its front glass broken, he informed his team and they searched for the victim but couldn’t find her, later when she returned to her hostel he accompanied her to Jnanabharthi police station where she filed the complaint. But the accused in his statement recorded under section 313 of Cr.P.C pleaded not guilty, completely denying his presence at the scene of the crime and questioned the victim’s sanity. There was no direct witness till this time as all the witness identified him based online drawing.
There was no DNA evidence present and no mention of forced intercourse or bloodstains on the victim in the medical report. The accused sweater which was presented as the evidence with soil match was also not sufficient. Thus the DNA test of accused was requested.
FORENSIC REPORT
The medical examination of the victim was conducted by Dr Pramila Devi, during the examination, there was no major injury seen in the vaginal region, the ejaculation strains from thigh region was swabbed and minor injury on the body was noted. Dr Dileep Kumar conducted the medical examination on Nirmal confirming injuries on his body from the incident. Dr Vinod J Lakkappan submitted the DNA report examined at FSL, Bangalore, of accused nos. 1 to 8 as Exs.P31 to P46. which showed the DNA profile match between the sample collected from the victim and that of accused.
JUDGEMENT
The court framed charges against the accused ( Shivanna (20), Yellaiah (23), Eeraiah(20), Doddera(19), Maddura (20), Rama(20), Raja (24) and a juvenile) for commiting offence against section 427, 366, 323, 324, 395, 397, 506[B], 376[2]g and 149 of IPC which included a hideous crime of gang rape on the victim committed on 13th October 2012.
So seven of them were given life imprisonment and the juvenile was sentenced to three years of imprisonment.