Lady Justice, the globally acknowledged symbol for legal equality (Representative Image) | Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Patna: A little over two months after a group of villagers thrashed and paraded a woman naked in Bihar's Arrah, a court has awarded prison sentences to 20 of the accused men. Reports at the time suggested that the woman was assaulted and humiliated after the locals suspected her of murdering a man whose body was found alongside the railway tracks near a red light area.

Hearing the matter, Additional District and Sessions Judge Ramesh Chandra Dwivedi sentenced five of the accused to seven years and the remaining 15 accused to two years in prison each. The accused were convicted on November 28 following a police investigation into the matter after a video of the inhumane assault started doing rounds on social media.

The court also ordered those sentenced to prison for seven years to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each while directing others convicted in the case to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 each. The accused were also found guilty under the SC/ST Act since the victim, in this case, hailed from a Dalit background. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar lauded the judgement by calling it "a fresh example of the high benchmark of rule of law set by the NDA government". He further added that all of those found guilty will be punished within a hundred days.

According to reports at the time, Vimalesh Sah, a resident of Damodarpur village was found dead along the railway tracks in Arrah after he went missing for one whole day. Since his body was found near a red light area, locals who suspected the role of a woman in Sah's death indulged into arson and thrashed the victim before tearing off her clothes and parading her naked on the streets.

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