Police File Chargesheet Against 3 Accused In Surat Gang-Rape Case A Fortnight After Crime

All three accused were arrested within a week after the alleged sexual assault of the 17-year-old girl near Mota Borsara village on October 8.

Surat:A fortnight after a teenage girl was allegedly raped in Gujarat's Surat district, police on Thursday filed a chargesheet against three accused, one of them dead now, in a special court here, officials said. All the three accused -- Shivshankar Chaurasia (45), Munna Paswan (40) and Raju Vishwakarma (35) -- were arrested within a week after the alleged sexual assault of the 17-year-old girl near Mota Borsara village under Mangrol taluka of Surat district on the night of October 8.

They face a slew of charges, ranging from gang-rape to attempt to murder. Of the trio, Chaurasia, nabbed on October 9, died in a Surat hospital where he was taken on October 10 after he complained of breathing difficulty in police custody. The 3,000-page chargesheet was submitted before special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) Court presided over by judge VV Parmar, said Special Public Prosecutor of the case, Nayan Sukhadwala.

After submission of the voluminous document, the judge kept further hearing in the case on Friday. A team of nearly 50 officers and other staff worked tirelessly on the case, preparing and submitting the chargesheet in just 15 days, said Surat district superintendent of police (SP) Hitesh Joysar.

"We have included statements of nearly 60 witnesses along with forensic as well as voice spectrography reports in the chargesheet, which runs into nearly 3,000 pages. Our aim is to make sure justice is served at the earliest and culprits get harshest possible punishment," he said.

The SP informed that the accused were charged under 19 different sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) as well as the POCSO Act for offences of gang-rape, abduction and attempt to murder, among others.

The teenager had gone to a village to meet friends after attending her coaching class. She and her male friend were sitting in a deserted place on their way to a petrol pump along a highway when three persons approached them, police said.

While the girl's male friend escaped from the spot, the trio raped the minor before fleeing with her and her friend's mobile phones. After registering an FIR on the girl's complaint, the police swung into action and arrested the three accused within a week of the crime.