Issewal gangrape: Life term till death to five, juvenile gets 20-year RI

Equating the 2019 Issewal gangrape to the infamous Nirbhaya case of 2012, a Ludhiana court on Friday sentenced five convicts to life imprisonment till death while sending the sixth accused, who was a 17-year-old juvenile at the time of the crime, to 20-year rigorous imprisonment.

Pronouncing the sentence four days after the six men were convicted on Monday, the court of additional district and sessions judge Rashmi Sharma also imposed a fine of ₹1.3 lakh each on Sadik Ali of Nawanshahr, and Jagroop Singh, Ajay, Saif Ali and Surmu of Ludhiana. The sixth convict, who was tried as an adult subject to the provisions of the amended Juvenile Justice Act, was fined ₹50,000. The ₹7 lakh collected as fines from them will go to the victim as compensation.

The case dates back to February 9, 2019, when a 20-year-old cosmetology student was held hostage along with a male friend and gangraped. The two were travelling from Ludhiana to Issewal village, located on the outskirts, when three men on a bike started followed them and stopped their car forcibly by breaking its glass. The accused then took the victim to a vacant plot and called their accomplices, and took turns to rape her.

They had also demanded ransom for their release, but the two somehow managed to escape. During trial, as many as 44 witnesses were examined by the prosecution, led by special public prosecutor BD Gupta.

‘Petrifying Nirbhaya gangrape came alive’

In its112-page judgment, the court stated that the “blood-curdling and petrifying” Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case that took place in the national capital on December 16, 2012, terrifying the world’s largest democracy, “comes alive with another Nirbhaya undergoing appalling agony of humanly inconceivable and diabolic tragedy in this case”.

“With the print and social media being flooded with the grisly resonance of ghastly rise in dreadful instances of brutal sexual assaults, molestation, rape, eve-teasing and harassment to which every passing second adds a new, Nirbhaya for the court is now no more the victim herself or an individual ravished. Rather, she is the portrayal reflection of thousands of silent sufferers who are never allowed to shed the cocoon to flutter against such horrendous acts,” said the court, while questioning the “orthodox gender stereotype mindset” and noting that many such gruesome offences are never brought to light.

‘Victim’s only hope is adequate sentence’

The court noted that while ancient Hindu texts, such as Manusmriti, glorified women, the “time-honoured notions of worshiping girls as Goddesses finds itself in the lurch to protect them from savage attitude of such monstrous acts”.

While dismissing the accused’s plea for leniency, the judge stated that a young girl and boy going out for a drive could never imagine that the “settling dusk of that cold February evening would engulf their life with spine-chilling darkness, the traumatic scars of which would haunt them for their lifetime”. “Their only way of hope is to see the face of justice being illuminated by imposition of adequate sentence without permitting mockery and travesty of justice,” said the court.