Howrah: The Howrah court pronounced life sentence for two BSF jawans who were convicted in gang rape of a minor girl that happened seven years ago, officials said on Monday. Judge Sourav Bhattacharya of Howrah Special Court announced life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakhs on both the BSF jawans — Balkram Yadav and Santosh Kumar; and 10 years rigorous imprisonment for army personnel Manjari Tripathi.
The Court held all three of them guilty on Monday based on the evidences placed on record by the prosecution. It is learnt that the young woman was 13 years old when the incident of gang rape took place on Dec. 27, 2015 and a case was filed under the provisions of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
On the ill-fated day, the unaccompanied minor was travelling alone to Amritsar from Howrah. According to the prosecution, the minor purchased a ticket for Amritsar mail and boarded the train. As she was unaware of the coach composition, she inadvertently traversed into the security cabin where the accused BSF persons and the army man were present.
The suspects forced the girl to drink alcohol and then took turns to rape her. The inebriated girl was raped six times according to the complaint. Some of the passengers who got the whiff of the incident alerted the Government Railway Police (GRP). The GRP rescued the minor girl in Madhupur station.
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One of the suspects was caught red-handed while other two managed to flee were later arrested by the GRP. The rescued child was sent for medical examination and the test results established the evidence for rape. Then girl was then brought to Howrah where she was treated at a Hospital.
The GRP charge sheeted the accused and the identification of the accused was completed by the victim at the test identification parade. The testimonies of 18 persons were taken into account during the trial. All three accused were produced before the Court while the judgement was pronounced.
