E-Paper
5-yr-old’s gang rape: Seven long years, wait for justice
New Delhi
New Delhi
On Saturday, inside a semi-packed Karkardooma court complex, when a city court pronounced its verdict in the 2013 gang rape case of a minor, seven years had flown by.
It had taken seven long years of litigation for a court to find the two suspects guilty of rape and abduction of the five-year-old and pronounce its verdict. In comparison, a fast-track court had handed out death sentences to five men in the December 16, 2012, gang rape and murder case in nine months
Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, on Saturday took to Twitter to say how it had taken seven long years to get justice in the minor’s case. He also wrote that there should be a system in place, by which such cases are decided within a time period (six years) so that women and children are safe in the national capital.
Counsels involved in the case said that the verdict took long because of transfer and change of judges and one of the convicts using delaying tactics by claiming juvenility.
The counsel for the victim, advocate Virendra Verma, said that six judges have changed during the trial in the last seven years till the court pronounced its verdict. He said that the delaying tactics used by the accused claiming juvenility is the major reason for the delay in deciding the case.
“In this case, the court resorted to ossification test, which is the last resort to decide the age of a person. Even in the December 16 gang rape case, the accused had used the same tactics. So the system should be made such that if there is evidence against the accused, even though juvenile, he should be tried in the sessions court. This will fast track the process,” Verma said.
The incident, which according to a city court had shaken the collective conscience of the community, was committed in the most gruesome manner. The minor was abducted by two men, one of whom lived in the same building, and sexually assaulted with candles and a bottle, which were later recovered from inside the victim’s body.
The incident happened on April 15, 2013 and the police filed the chargesheet on May 24, 2013. The court framed charges on July 11 of the same year. However, the case also lingered in the Delhi High Court after one of the accused, Pradeep, in 2014 claimed that he was a juvenile at the time when he was arrested. His application in this context was decided by the court after three years. On April 12, 2017, the case was sent back to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) from where Pradeep was granted bail.
However, this order of the sessions court was challenged in the Delhi High Court by the victim’s mother. In 2018, the high court held that Pradeep was not a juvenile and sent the trial back to the city court.
Seven years after the verdict, the victim’s uncle, said, the system needs to change for speedy decision of such cases. Records show that the statements of the 57 prosecution witnesses were recorded by the court over a period of five years as the judges kept changing. The case came to Additional Sessions Judge in February this year, when he was transferred from a CBI court. He then held day-to-day hearing in the matter and pronounce the verdict on January 18.
On January 30, when the court is likely to pronounce its verdict, the maximum punishment in this case can be life imprisonment. Since the incident had happened in 2013, the amended rape laws, in which an accused would be sent to gallows for raping a minor below 12 years, will not be applicable.
Recalling the incident, the then Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said he clearly remembers how the case led to backlash that the police had faced at the time of December 16 gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old paramedic student.
“This incident took place when we were yet to recover from the December 16 case shock. I am satisfied on learning about the conviction. It was one of the most brutal rape cases I witnessed during my tenure.” he said.
