A Kerala court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced to life three out of four men who gangraped a minor Dalit girl two years ago in Kozhikode district of Kerala. The fourth received a jail term of 30 years.
The three — Sayuj, Rahul and Akshay — were convicted and sentenced to life by Fast Track Special Court Judge Suhaib M for the offence of atrocities against the Dalit girl under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The remaining accused — Shibu — was not convicted for the offence under the SC/ST Act as he was a Dalit himself, public prosecutor Manoj Aroor said.
The court convicted and sentenced to 30 years all the four accused for the offence of gangrape of a minor girl under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the prosecutor said.
Additionally, the court also imposed a total fine of Rs 5.75 lakh on the four persons.
According to the police, the then 17-year-old girl, belonging to a Scheduled Caste, was gangraped by the four men, one of whom was her friend, after they gave her a sedative-laced juice at a tourist spot in the district on October 3, 2021.
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The girl’s friend, who also lives in her locality, had invited her for sight-seeing and took her to the tourist spot.
Upon reaching there, he took her to a resort and gave her a glass of juice laced with a sedative. Later, he and three of his friends raped her and then dropped her back near her house in Kuttiyadi, police said.
They also threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed to anyone what they had done to her.
Shocked and afraid, the victim did not tell anyone anything and attempted to commit suicide by jumping into a river, the prosecutor said.
She was rescued by local residents of the area and that is when she told her family about the trauma inflicted on her. Her family then reported it to the police, he said.
