Five Special Benches of the Gauhati High Court on Wednesday disposed of 21 rape cases; upholding the conviction of the accused by the trial court in 17 cases and acquitting the convicts in four cases.

Ziaul Kamar, Public Prosecutor, Gauhati High Court, told The Hindu that five special benches were constituted by Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel of the High Court following the directive of the Chief Justice of India to expedite the disposal of the rape cases. Accordingly, the five special benches on Wednesday listed 100 pending rape cases with 20 cases for each bench and disposed of 21 cases.

The Public Prosecutor said that as many as 196 rape cases pertaining to the period between 2006 and 2011 were pending in the State. Earlier, on January 30, the five benches disposed of 22 rape cases upholding the conviction of the accused in 17 cases and acquitted the accused in five cases.

He said that in one of the cases disposed on Wednesday, the Bench of Justice I. Ansari upheld the trial court’s judgment of sentencing the accused to ten years’ rigorous imprisonment for raping one of his minor daughters and attempting to rape another minor daughter at Silapathar in Dhemaji district. The judgment was passed by Sessions Judge, Dhemaji J. Begum Anowara in the rape case.