Danish woman gangrape: HC upholds life term of 5 rapists
16 April 2018 6:23 PM GMT
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday upheld the life imprisonment till death awarded to five convicts for gangraping a 52-year-old Danish woman here in 2014, saying the most important scientific evidence, the DNA report, has proven their guilt.
The court, however, took a serious view over the lapse of the investigating officer (IO) in not preparing a proper site-plan of the place of the crime, saying this was "very important" as it is very rare that there are witnesses to such crimes other than the victim.
A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta noted that the foreigner was raped for five hours and said if she was raped in a secluded area among the bushes, the IO has to satisfy himself by standing at the mud hill of the construction area to see if the crime spot was visible and "this basic exercise of reconstruction of the crime scene was not done".
The court dismissed the appeal of the convicts challenging their conviction and jail term awarded by a trial court in 2016. The trial court had awarded maximum punishment while making it clear that rigorous imprisonment for life means jail till remainder of natural life of – Mahender alias Ganja, Mohd Raja, Raju, Arjun and Raju Chakka.
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