Two get 20 years rigorous imprisonment for gangrape of healthcare worker

A Ghaziabad court on Wednesday awarded 20 years of rigorous imprisonment to two men convicted of gang rape of a 25-year-old healthcare worker while she was returning home from duty on the night of September 22, 2017, near Raj Nagar Extension.

The two convicts-- identified as Ankit Jaat and Mohit Singh--were charged with sections 376-D (gangrape), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) and 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the IPC.

Additional district and sessions judge (rape and Pocso [Protection of Children from Sexual Offences] cases) Ishwar Singh awarded 20 years of rigorous imprisonment to each to the two convicts, besides levying a penalty of ₹50,000 on each of them for gangrape, seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹10,000 each for robbery and two years of rigorous imprisonment and fine of ₹2,000 each for dishonestly receiving stolen property. All the prison terms will run concurrently, said the court.

Satish Sharma, special public prosecutor (Pocso cases), said, “The two gangraped the woman while she was returning home from duty and also beat her up and fled with her mobile. The victim was later hospitalised. The two convicts named a third suspect, who was let off as his involvement could not be established.”

The incident assumed significance as the woman was gangraped near the Delhi Meerut Road, barely 200 metres away from her house.

In her statement before the court, the victim said the two men gagged her and dragged her to a field where they first beat her up severely so that she could not resist them. Later, she said, the two men raped her by taking turns.

The victim said while she was screaming in pain, the two filmed the act and took her pictures, besides threatening her of dire consequences if she told about the incident to anyone. While identifying the convicts, the woman said that while one of them snatched her bag, the other snatched her phone and pushed her into a nearby field.

“The men left her in an isolated field thinking she was dead. However, she somehow reached home and told her family, who then called police and informed about the incident,” said the special public prosecutor.

The police registered a case at Sihani Gate police station. Later, several teams of the Ghaziabad police, including the crime branch, launched a manhunt for the suspects.

The crime branch nabbed the two suspects from Karhera cut near Raj Nagar Extension a week after the incident on September 29, 2017. A day later, the police--after interrogating the suspects--recovered the victim’s mobile phone from Duhai area.