Park Street rape convicts get 10-year imprisonment

Before pronouncing the quantum of punishment, the court gave time to the three convicts for their submission around 2 pm.All three pleaded for minimum punishment. The minimum punishment for a person held guilty on charges of gang-rape is 10 years imprisonment and the maximum is life trerm.

Sumit and his counsel pleaded before the court for minimum punishment saying that he is a meritorious student and at the same time there is no one apart from him to look after his parents. 

Sumit has been convicted on charges of gang-rape, though he was driving the car, as “he was considered to have supported the other accused by not taken steps to check the crime or by informing the police”.

Naser and Ruman submitted that they have no one to take care of their family members. The public prosecutors have not opposed the plea for the minimum punishment.The court passed the order around 3 pm on Friday. All three have been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and have been slapped with a fine of Rs 1 lakh each. 

They have to be in correctional home for six more months if they fail to pay the fine. As per the order, the money will be given to the children of victim Suzzette Jordan, said  Subhashis Roy, the victim’s counsel. The defence counsels said that they would move to the Calcutta high court. But first they have to go through Friday’s order properly. 

A huge contingent of police was posted outside the court to avoid any untoward incident. All three of them were taken to a correctional home from the court amid tight security.

Question are being raised over the failure of the police to arrest two more persons in this connection, including the prime accused Kader Khan, even after almost four years of the incident. Senior police officers of Detective Department, however, refused to comment. 

Family members of the victim also demanded the arrest of Kader and Ali, who were shown absconding in the chargesheet.