2 convicted for raping 5-year-old girl in 2013
New Delhi: A POCSO court convicted two men on Saturday for raping a five-year-old girl in east Delhi seven years ago, saying the case had shaken the collective conscience of the society.
The gruesome incident, in which convicts Manoj Shah and Pradeep Kumar shoved objects in the victim's private parts and abandoned her in Shah's room believing she was dead, had happened four months after the Nirbhaya gang rape-and-murder case in December 2012. The child was rescued 40 hours later on April 17, 2013.
Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra convicted the two, saying the child experienced exceptional depravity and extreme brutality.
"Collective conscience of the society shaken. In our society, minor girls are worshipped as goddess," the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court said.
The father of the victim expressed satisfaction on finally getting justice for his daughter. "Though the trial should have been completed in two years, we are happy we got justice after six years," he said.
The court fixed January 30 for arguments on quantum of sentence.
Shah and Kumar were arrested by Delhi police separately from Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga in Bihar respectively in 2013. The charge sheet was filed on May 24 that year and charges were framed by the court on July 11.
The police had said some foreign materials -- three pieces of a candle and one hair oil bottle -- were taken out from the body of the victim, which was also proved by doctors during recording of their statements in the court.
Anger over the incident spilled onto Delhi's streets as outraged students and women staged demonstrations at the India Gate, police headquarters and near the residences of then prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Singh had said collective efforts were needed to root out such "depravity" from society.
Placard-wielding protesters had also gathered at AIIMS, where the girl was undergoing treatment, and burnt the effigy of then Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, demanding his sacking.
While in the Nirbhaya case, a trial court had convicted and awarded death penalty to the four convicts in a span of 10 months, it took six years, seven judges and 57 prosecution witnesses to complete the trial in the 2013 gang-rape case.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said a system needs to be developed to ensure that rape convicts are punished within six months.
Reacting to the verdict in 2013 'Gudiya' rape case, Kejriwal said it took seven years to find the accused guilty.
"Both accused in the gudiya rape case were found guilty. It took seven years. We need to all together correct this system. If we want to ensure that no one misbehaves with our sisters and daughters we need to develop a system which ensures that accused are punished within six months," he said in a tweet.
