The incident had occurred at the government hospital in Supela in Durg district where the woman was admitted for treatment.

A court in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district sentenced two policemen and a government doctor to imprisonment for rest of their life for the rape a 20-year-old woman in 2014.

Fifth Additional District and Session Judge Subhra Pachouri on Thursday convicted the doctor, Gautam Pandit, and the policemen, Saurabh Bhakta and Chandraprakash Pandey, and awarded them life imprisonment, Additional Public Prosecutor Kamal Kishore Verma told PTI on November 22.

The convicts would not be released from jail till their “natural death”, he added.

“The court observed that this was an instance of protector turning into a predator. In view of the offence committed by the accused, they deserve no leniency”, Mr. Verma, who appeared for the victim, said.

The incident had occurred on June 19, 2014, at the government hospital in Supela in Durg district where the woman was admitted for treatment of some ailments, he said.

Pandit, then posted in the hospital, and the police constables Bhakta and Pandey, who were on duty there, took the woman to the guardroom and raped her. They also filmed the act and started harassing the victim using the clip. After she was discharged from the hospital, the two constables again sexually exploited her by threatening to upload the video on social media platforms.

When the two cops learnt the woman had become pregnant, they forcibly gave her a pill to abort the foetus in December 2014, he said.

However, mustering courage, the victim in January 2015 lodged a police complaint following which the three accused were arrested.

After a year of filing the complaint, the girl committed suicide in January 2016.

The trio were convicted under sections 376 (2)(B) (being a public servant, takes advantage of his official position and commits rape on a woman in his custody), 376(D) (gang rape) and 506B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104.