Shakti Mills Gang-Rape Case: Bombay HC Sets Aside Death Penalty Of 3 Convicts, Announces Life Imprisonment

The Bombay High court commuted the death sentence of the three convicts in the 2013 Shakti Mills Gang-Rape case to life imprisonment.

Bombay High Court | File Photo

New Delhi: The Bombay High Court gave its final verdict in the 2013 Shakti Mills gang-rape case. The court commuted the death sentence of the three convicts to life imprisonment, according to ANI.

The Bombay High Court was hearing a petition by the state government for the approval of the death penalty of the three convicts in the case.

On 4 April 2014, the Mumbai Sessions Court had sentenced the three convicts Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali, and Salim Ansari to death. The three convicts were presented in court today through video conferencing. Justice SS Jadhav and Justice Prithviraj Chauhan delivered the verdict in the case.

It is important to note that the three convicts are repeated offenders as there are 2 cases related to Shakti Mills gangrape- a photographer journalist case and a telephone operator case. There are 5 convicts in both cases of which three convicts are the same.

Shakti Mills Gangrape Case-Photojournalist Gangrape

The incident goes back to August 22,  2013. A young woman photojournalist who worked for a magazine was gang-raped at about 6.45 pm in the Shakti Mills compound in Mahalaxmi.  The police cracked the case within 24 hours and on August 23, 2013, the first arrest was made when the police arrested the minor accused. On August 24, 2013, the second accused Vijay Jadhav was arrested and a few hours later on the same day, the third accused Siraj Rehman alias Sirju was also arrested. Then on August 25, 2013, the fourth accused, Qasim Bengali, was arrested. The fifth and main conspirator, Mohammad Salim Ansari, was arrested on August 25, 2013.

After this, the statement of the victim photojournalist was recorded on August 26, 2013. 

Shakti Mills Gangrape Case-Telephone operator Gangrape

 On September 3, 2013, another victim came to the fore. A 19-year-old telephone operator told the police that on July 31, she was also gang-raped by five people, including three already arrested.

On September 4, 2013, the victim identified the three accused after which on September 19, 2013, the Mumbai Crime Branch filed a charge sheet of about 600 pages. The trial started on October 14, 2013. On January 13, 2014, the victim's aide who was an eyewitness to the case also identified the accused. On March 20, 2014, the Mumbai Sessions Court found all accused guilty of the crime. 

In April 2014, a sessions court in Mumbai held five persons guilty in the 2013 case, which had caused a national outrage. One of them, Siraj Khan, was sentenced to life imprisonment, while a second accused, a minor, was sent to a correctional facility.

Jadhav, Bengali, and Ansari were sentenced to death under the then newly introduced section 376 (E) of the IPC since the three had also been convicted in a previous case of gang-rape. The three, however, moved the HC soon after their conviction, challenging the constitutional validity of the law under which they were sentenced to death for a repeat offence.

The convicts represented by senior counsel Yug Chaudhry had argued that the death sentence awarded to them was wrong in law since there existed an “enormous difference between the harm caused” by them and “the punishment” meted out to them.

They filed a plea in the high court that the death sentence violated their fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

“Life imprisonment is rule and death penalty is an exception. Have to be decided dispassionately. Such incident shows conscience but the procedure cannot be ignored,” the court said while handing over the lifer.