New Delhi: Seven years after the horrific gangrape of a five-year-old girl in east Delhi, a court here on Saturday held the two accused guilty under sections of attempt to murder, rape and kidnapping. The quantum of punishment will be announced on January 30.
Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra convicted Manoj Shah and Pradeep Kumar, saying that the child experienced exceptional depravity and extreme brutality.
Shah and Kumar had raped the girl at Gandhi Nagar and shoved objects into her private parts on April 15, 2013. They had fled after committing the crime and leaving her in Shah's room after believing her to be dead. The child was rescued 40 hours later on April 17, 2013.
The case, which took place a few months after the Nirbhaya case in December the previous year, came to be known as the Gudiya rape case. The assault left the girl, now nine years old, with a perineal tear. She later underwent six surgeries.
"In our society, minor girls are worshipped as goddess," said the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Karkardooma while convicting the accused. It said the "collective conscience of the society was shaken" after the horrific case.
The father of the girl expressed satisfaction on getting justice.
"Though the trial should have been completed in two years, we are happy we got justice after six years," he said.
A few journalists were allegedly assaulted outside the court by Shah, who hit the senior reporters on their faces while he was being taken out of the courtroom.
The issue was brought to the notice of Judge Malhotra, who asked one of the senior woman reporters to file a written complaint to the Station House Officer. The judge then sent her for a medical examination.
Shah and Kumar were arrested by the Delhi Police separately from Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga in Bihar, respectively, in 2013. The charge sheet was filed on May 24 that year and charges were framed by the court on July 11.
It took more than five years to complete the recording of the statement of 57 prosecution witnesses in the POCSO court.
(With inputs from agencies)
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