UP Court Orders Death Penalty To 2 Men: In a Nation Where We Worship Goddesses

A court in a verdict referring to a gang rape case, said, “no punishment is enough for the kind of crime that has been committed." A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratpagarh on November 2 gave a death sentence to two accused named Haleem alias Kharbar and Rizwan. They were convicted of gang rape and assaulting a minor. 

As the survivor was a minor, the case was filed in POCSO Court. The Additional District Sessions Judge of the POCSO Court Pankaj Kumar Srivastava compared a woman’s body to a temple and remarked, “A woman’s body is like a temple and a woman alone can decide who can enter in it, nobody has the right to force her.”

He also pointed out that it is the irony of how Indian society, while worshipping various goddesses for their needs, still looks at women as objects of enjoyment. He said,

"It is ironic that in our country, we worship Maa Durga for strength, Maa Lakshmi for wealth, Maa Saraswati for knowledge, and worship rivers like The Ganga like mothers. We have elevated women to the posts of President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Governor, etc, in that country such a heinous and brutal gang rape of a minor victim puts a question mark on the whole society."

Further highlighting the brutality in the case, he said these men did not just gang-rape her but also brutalised her body and threw her near a railway track thinking her to be dead- It is the rarest of the rare case. 

Court called it rarest and highly brutal because the three men including a minor raped a minor girl. She was allegedly assaulted. The convicts wounded her head and deformed her face, which left the minor survivor with only one eye and lost left eyesight for life. Injuries were inflicted on her arms, legs, and thighs, which also caused her a fracture on her right knee. Thereafter, threw her onto railway tracks considering she is dead. 

The judgment read-

this act shows mental bankruptcy and the kind of thinking they have towards women and to what extent they can go. It is beyond comprehension why these men were treating the minor like an animal because such cruelty is not committed even against animals.

Death Penalty To UP Gang Rape Convicts

The court sentenced the convicted rapist to 31-year imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 50,000 each. Also, ordered to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh under Section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for causing physical injury and mental trauma and for rehabilitation of the minor survivor.

The survivor girl’s brother filed the case against unknown persons at Nawabganj police station on 30 December 2021. In the case, it was said his sister had gone to the village shop on 27 December, during which she was kidnapped and taken to the nearby railway track, where convicted men raped her. She was later brought to the Community Health Center, Kalakankar in an unconscious state from where doctors referred her to SRN Medical College hospital. 

After five days, the survivor came to her senses and named three accused – Aman alias Qasim, Rizwan, and Haleem. Aman was found to be a minor and is now referred to a juvenile court.

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