All the three convicts in the Park Street gangrape case were today sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment by a Sessions Court, over three years after the assault on a 40-year-old mother of two teenage daughters in a moving car here.
Additional sessions judge Chiranjib Bhattacharya sentenced Ruman Khan, Naser Khan and Sumit Bajaj to 10 years RI with Rs one lakh fine each, a day after they were convicted on the charge of gangrape under section 376 (2)(g) of IPC.
The charge entails a minimum punishment of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum of life sentence.
If the fines are not paid, the convicts would have to undergo a further imprisonment of six months each, the judge said while passing the order in camera.
The judge also sentenced Ruman Khan and Naser Khan to six months’ RI under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) each and a fine of Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively from each of the two convicts, chief public prosecutor Sarbani Roy said.
All the terms would run concurrently.
The court, which had pronounced the three guilty yesterday, heard their prayers before pronouncing the quantum of punishment.
All of them claimed to be innocent and alleged that the charges were concocted.
Two other accused–main accused Kadir Khan and Ali are absconding.
Counsels for the convicts prayed that they be given the minimum sentence in view of their antecedents, while claiming they were innocent.
Suzette Jordan, the victim, appeared in public several times and had waived her right to anonymity, saying she had no inhibition in her name being published to encourage other rape survivors to speak out. She died of encephalitis in March this year.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had courted controversy after she said that the hue and cry over the incident was an attempt to malign her government and that it was fabricated.
( Source – PTI )
