A trial court in Muzaffarnagar has convicted two men in a case of gang rape of a Muslim woman during the September 2013 communal violence that hit Western Uttar Pradesh. The woman, whose house was looted and burnt on September 8, in the same year, was raped by three men identified as Kuldeep, Sikander, and Maheshveer.
Kuldeep died during the trial.
They have been convicted under sections 376-D (gangrape), 376(2)(g), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), said lawyers representing the victim.
The victims have been given rigorous imprisonment of 20 years under Section 376-D with a fine of Rs 10,000, rigorous imprisonment of 10 years under Section 376(2)(g) with a compensation of Rs 5,000, and rigorous imprisonment for two years under Section 506(2) IPC.
This comes on the heels of the victim approaching the Supreme Court praying for expeditious disposal of the trial which had from the inception witnessed partisan investigation and the deliberate and protracted delay meant to exhaust the victim, the lawyers said.
Senior advocate Vrinda Grover, one of the lawyers representing the victim, confirmed the conviction to Outlook. A detailed judgment is still awaited.
Grover took the matter to the apex court in May 2014, following which a case was registered under IPC Section 376-D at the Phugana Police Station.
This is probably the first case of conviction under 376(2)(g) IPC pursuant to the 2013 Criminal Law Amendment, which recognised rape during communal violence as a specific offence, the lawyers said.
More than 60 persons were killed in the Muzaffarnagar communal violence in 2013 and thousands were displaced amid allegations that several women were also sexually assaulted by violent mobs.
In her complaint, the Muslim woman said that on September 8, 2013, when parts of Muzaffarnagar were hit by communal violence, her elder son was suffering from high-fever. Her husband was not at home as he had taken him to a doctor in Shamli.
The woman and her younger son, a three-year-old, were left alone at home in their village in Muzaffarnagar. Then, at around 11:30 am that day a rumour spread that a Muslim man was shot dead near the Badi Mosque and that riots have erupted.
The woman ran from her home along with her younger son and other relatives. Two witnesses who fled along with the victim told court that they all first took shelter in a sugarcane field near the village but then decided to move towards neighboring district Shamli through the fields. However, the woman, who was carrying her child, was left behind.
The woman was raped in a sugarcane field near a school after she was left behind, noted additional sessions judge Anjani Kumar Singh in the 89-page judgment, a copy of which is with Outlook.
The victim frantically ran into the fields to save her and her son after she was left behind. The village was located around 2 km from the site where she was raped. Noting that she carried her son in her lap, the judge said this depicted the "hard effort and poignant struggle of a mother" to save herself and her son.
However, despite her relentless struggle, when she was a about to reach the main road, she fell into the clutches of the accused Kuldeep, Maheshvir and Sikandar who were armed with a knife and a pistol and were hovering there in search of hapless women, said the judge.
The victim said she hid behind the school but the three men spotted her. The woman knew the three men because they were customers at her husband's tailoring shop.
The accused snatched her child from her and raped her after threatening her to kill her son, the woman alleged. As they put a knife on her son's throat, the three took turns to rape her, she said in her complaint.
