A special court in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday convicted six persons and sentenced them to life for gang-raping a Swiss woman on March 15 this year.
While pronouncing the life sentence, special judge Jitendra Kumar Sharma also ordered each convict to pay a fine of `10,000. According to information received here, all those convicted are in the age group of 20 to 30.
The convicts are Rampro, Bhuta, Baba, Bishnu, Brijesh, and Nitin, all of them from the Kanjar community who were living in Jharia village, near Datia district headquarters. While five were handed life terms for rape, Nitin (Rishi) Kanjar was given life imprisonment for dacoity.
The Civil Lines police station at Datia had lodged the FIR about the gangrape on the victim’s complaint on March 15. A Swiss couple carrying portable camping gear were cycling from Orchcha to Gwalior on their way to Agra. They had pitched a tent to spend the night near Jharia village when a gang descended on the scene, looted their valuables and gangraped the woman in front of her husband.
The sentence was prescribed under Sections 376 (rape) and 395 (punishment for dacoity) of the IPC, Sections 12 and 14 of the Anti-Dacoity Act and under the Arms Act.
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Violence in Kashmir goes on, 4 hurt in firing
Yusuf Jameel
Srinagar, July 20
Scores were injured in fresh clashes between curfew-defying crowds and the police across the Kashmir Valley as protests over the alleged desecration of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, and other scriptures by members of the BSF and subsequent killing of four residents in BSF firing continued.
A mob on Saturday fought pitched battles with the CRPF at Khudwani and Qazigund. The CRPF reportedly opened fire, injuring four protesters, reports said.