2 men convicted in minor girl's rape case 23 yrs after incident

New Delhi: Over two decades after the incident, two men have been convicted for raping a minor girl and abetting the crime respectively by the Delhi High Court, which said the medical evidence corroborated the victim's testimony. The high court set aside the trial court judgment that had acquitted the two men of the charges, saying the acquittal suffered from the vice of perversity, resulting in a grave miscarriage of justice.

It said the 13-year-old girl, in her testimony before the trial court, had given a vivid and indubitable recount of what she was subjected to by the accused at the time of the incident in March, 1997.

"Having regard to the totality of the circumstances, appearing on the record of the case, we are constrained to observe that the trial court ignored the cardinal tenets of appreciation of evidence, including the weight to be attached to the testimony

of the minor victim, since the accused had evidently been identified immediately

and arrested contemporaneously," a bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and IS Mehta said in the verdict passed recently. It said the trial court also failed to consider the circumstance that no dispute was raised at the relevant stage regarding the identity of the two men, nor was it brought to the notice of the higher

authorities of the police or the lower court at the relevant point in time.

The bench said the medical evidence corroborated

the clear and unequivocal testimony of the minor victim, who had also identified the two men as the offenders before the trial court. The high court allowed the appeal of the prosecution challenging the acquittal of the two men and directed that convicts Surender Kumar and Ravinder be taken into custody forthwith.

While Surender was convicted for the offences of rape and criminal intimidation, Ravinder was held guilty of abetment to rape. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence next week.