4 Prez Bodyguards guilty in rape case

A city court on Monday convicted four members of the elite President’s Bodyguards (PBG) in connection with the gang rape of a Jesus and Mary College student at Buddha Jayanti Park six years ago.

A city court on Monday convicted four members of the elite President’s Bodyguards (PBG) in connection with the gang rape of a Jesus and Mary College student at Buddha Jayanti Park six years ago.

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Additional sessions Judge S.K. Sarvaria pronounced Harpreet Singh and Satiender Singh guilty of raping the 17-year-old student. The maximum punishment for the crime is life imprisonment.

Kuldeep Singh and Manish Kumar were held guilty of helping them commit the rape.

On October 6, 2003, the student had gone to Buddha Jayanti Park, a stone’s throw from the President’s Estate, with her boyfriend to attend a Dalai Lama programme.

The PBG members had roughed up the boyfriend and dragged the girl to a secluded place, where Harpreet and Satiender raped her while the other two kept a watch.

A cavalry regiment based at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the PBG is tasked with escorting and protecting the president.

Then president APJ Abdul Kalam had lost his cool when he get to know about the case. “Kalam, normally so composed, was more angry that I had ever seen him,” writes P.M. Nair, his then secretary, in his book The Kalam Effect.