Judge recommends counselling, meditation to reform gang-rape convict, upholds 10-year jail term
The Delhi high court on Thursday said correctional courses, meditation therapy, vocational training and psychometric tests should be given to reform a man convicted of gang-raping a 13-year-old boy along with is accomplices in a truck in Aman Vihar area in 2016
The Delhi high court on Thursday said correctional courses, meditation therapy, vocational training and psychometric tests should be given to reform a man convicted of gang-raping a 13-year-old boy along with is accomplices in a truck in Aman Vihar area in 2016.
Justice Anu Malhotra, while upholding the 10-year-old prison sentence awarded to the man, said educational opportunities and skill development programmes should be given to the man for making himself self-dependent.
The court said adequate counselling should also be given to him to keep him from joining antisocial groups and to make him understand the reason for him being in prison.
The man, Chand, through his counsel had challenged the conviction and punishment awarded to him in February last year for aggravated penetrative assault on the minor.
According to the prosecution, the man along with two others, one of them a juvenile, sexually assaulted the child and also criminally intimidated him on January 25, 2016, around 3am. The child had told the police that he was beaten and forcibly taken aboard an oil tanker truck, where he was sexually abused while being held at knifepoint.
The judge said the trial court had rightly convicted Chand because there was no motive for the child to falsely implicate him. It said the appellant does not deserve any leniency and there is no infirmity in the judgment of the trial court.
“In the circumstances, there is no infirmity whatsoever in the judgment and the appellant merits no leniency... The appeal is thus declined,” Malhotra said.
He asked the jail superintendent to submit a biannual report till the date of release of the convict, detailing the measures taken to reform and rehabilitate him.