Jharkhand high court on Thursday upheld life conviction of 14 people accused of raping a budding engineer of B... Read More

RANCHI: Jharkhand high court on Thursday upheld life conviction of 14 people accused of raping a budding engineer of Bokaro Steel City , 16 years ago. Though neither the girl nor her father---both of whom had put up a brave face for over a decade, to bring the culprits to book---are alive now to sence justice being done.

Double bench of chief justice Virendra Singh and Justice PP Bhatt upheld the sentence awarded by subordinate court in 2004 for 14 out of 21 convicts but acquitted six of them. One convict is learnt to have died in the course of trial pending at high court.

Those convicted for life includes key conspirator Yunus Ansari , a tempo driver who was accused of kidnapping the teenage girl from near her residence on April 5 April 1999. She was taken to nearby Bharra colony with the help of some other men working in Pillai Garage that was opposite to her residence in the officers colony of BSL. Garage owner Pramod Pillai his associate Mani Swami and others including Islam Sheikh, Barju Shah, Sayum Ansari, Momin Akhtar, Iqbal Shah, Habib Ansari, Abbas Ansari and Mojib Ansari are those who will continue to spend their remaining life in jail.

Court acquitted six persons on the basis of the fact that they were not physically present at the site of crime and the prosecution could not establish their role in conspiracy part as well.

Assistant PP, Binod Singh said that the 1999 Monica rape case has been one of the most heinous cases of gang rape in India in which a brilliant student of class XII was not just physically devastated but she soon lost her mental balance and finally died while being treated few years ago. "Daughter of a senior assistant general manager of Bokaro Steel plant she was kidnapped by half a dozen youths and taken to a place called Bharra.Sixteen persons, aged between 22 and 55, raped the girl at a secluded place and later dumped her at a isolated spot, taking her to be dead," he said adding that the girl somehow managed to knock the door of a retired BDO who later called her parents.

One appellant in the case Abbas Ansari, who was out of his home for repairing generator not just identified the culprits but narrated the incident during trial at lower court to ensure that the culprits are brought to book. "Though court has directed government to pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the mother of the victim, we doubt that the family is going to accept it," APP Singh said.