“The scar of rape always remains in the mind of the victim and cannot be overcome throughout her life,” additional sessions judge Neeraj Kumar Gupta said.
Terming the act of convict Ajit Singh Katiyar “beastly”, the court also slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on him after finding him guilty of gangrape, abduction, criminal intimidation, administering intoxicant and group liability.
Defence counsel Manoj Sharma, however, sought a lenient sentence for his client on the ground that he belongs to a poor family background and had to look after his old and ailing parents.
Lending credence to the testimony of the victim, the court on Tuesday held the accused guilty , saying: “The victim is not on trial and it is the accused who is on trial. Moreover, she (the victim) was consistent in all her statements.”
The court, in its 70-page verdict, relied on the unequivocal and “consistent” statements the 20-year-old victim gave to police and during the trial.
The victim was abducted on May 8, 2005 while she was walking back home after buying food from a roadside eatery along with a friend and was raped by four accused in a car near Dhaula Kuan in South Delhi here. She was later dumped near a gurdwara here. The girl, who stood by her statement, identified Katiyar as the culprit first in the test identification parade, held in Tihar Jail and then in the court.
The court, however, said the police had failed to arrest Danda, Jat and Tappe, the three co-accused. They were later declared proclaimed offenders during the trial.