MYSURU: In a landmark judgement, a city court sending a strong message to molesters of foreign nationals has sentenced a male nurse to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment in jail for abusing a foreign student who was on a study tour in 2015, on Wednesday.

This is the harshest punishment given by a court in Mysuru perhaps in Karnataka for an offence of rape. Minimum punishment for under section 376 (2)(d) of IPC was ten years, but the court considering the gravity of the offence and its widespread consequences at the international level has sentenced convict Sumith (26) to 25 in jail and fined him with Rs 10000.

The VII additional district and sessions court also sentenced him for two years in jail for disrobing the victim and fined Rs 5000. Both prison sentences will run concurrently, stated public prosecutor Mahanthappa.

The victim's evidence was recorded on skype, a video call and voice call app, with victim being in the US, twice in mid-2017. The judgment was out within two years of crime.

Case history

The 21-year-old victim, a student of Duke University in US, was on a study tour in November 2015 when the incident happened. She arrived in Mysuru after visiting Rajasthan and Bengaluru on November 4, 2015. She was doing research on Indian tribal people. An organization working with Tribal in HD Kote was supporting for the studies.

As soon as she arrived in Mysuru, she fell sick with stomach pain and symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting. She was treated in a domicile in Mysuru for a day. When her health didn’t improve she was shifted to Columbia Asia hospital on the evening of November 6.

She was treated by a woman doctor assisted by male nurse Sumith, a native of Malavalli taluk in Mandya district. She was admitted in a private ward and two women including one friend from the US and local resident were attending her.

It was round 8pm when Sumith returned to the ward on the pretext of changing IV fluids. He sent both of her attendants out of room before molesting her on the hospital bed. The student was shocked and yelled for help. Immediately, Sumith left the room.

Sumith sent her Facebook request following which they registered a complaint with hospital management against the staff. The management of chain of hospitals in a hurry sacked him from job after receiving apology letter from him.

The victim waited till November 22 to get permission from her university to lodge a police complaint. Immediately, Sumith was taken into custody, according to Mahanthappa.

Victim's evidence on Skype

The victim's evidence was recorded on Skype twice in mid 2017 after the student expressed her difficulty in travelling to India to give evidence. She gave evidence for three and half hours – first day for two hours and second day for one-and –half hours. She identified the accused and explained in details what happened to her on the day. The evidence was recorded in noon hours Indian time but then in her place in the US the time was 3 am to 5 am, Mahanthappa stated.

