Danish gangrape: Five accused are jailed for life

A fast-track court on Friday awarded rigorous life imprisonment to five men — Mahendra alias Ganja (27), Mohd Raja (23), Raju (24), Arjun (22) and Raju Chakka (23) — convicted for the gangrape of 52-year-old Danish tourist in the city in 2014. The court clarified that the five convicts will be jailed till the remainder of their natural life and also imposed financial penalty of Rs 83,000 each on Raju and Raju Chakka, Rs 93,000 each on Mahender and Mohd Raja and Rs 1,03,000 on Arjun.

Of the remaining four accused, Shyam Lal (56) died in February in Tihar Jail and the remaining three, who are all minors, are facing proceedings before the Juvenile Justice Board.

“The convicts are Indians and despite knowing the Indian philosophy of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava (Guests are God)’ and ‘Yatra Nari Pujyate Tatra Ramante Devta (Where the ladies are worshipped, God dwells),’ they committed such offence and that too in a barbaric and cruel manner and she was treated like an animal just for satisfying their lust and robbed for satisfaction to fulfil their bad habits,” additional sessions judge Ramesh Kumar noted.

The court said Mahender, alias Ganja, and Raju had criminal records and thus there were no chances of their improvement, hence they deserved maximum punishment. “Acts of convicts have caused a serious dent to the reputation of India in the world. By imposing maximum sentence on the convicts, a message must be given to the world that rule of law still prevails in India, as this case has a worldwide ramification.”

The woman’s testimony identifying Mahender, Arjun and Raju, three of the nine culprits, scientific evidence that included the DNA and FSL reports (that proved involvement of Mohd Raja, Raju and Shyam Lal, alias Bhajni, by their semen found on floral top of the victim) and the eyewitness account of a gardener were used by the court to convict and sentence five of the nine accused. “Their involvement is proved beyond reasonable doubt through the scientific evidence i.e. the DNA test,” the court noted.

The judge also noted that examination of the victim conducted in Copenhagen also corroborated the FSL report and indicated that no other persons except the accused persons identified by victim and established by the FSL report were involved in the crime. The court said that the convicts had committed the offence in most barbaric and inhuman manner.