KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Jan 22: The court of additional district judge (V) Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay this afternoon sentenced three persons, who were accused in the sensational Mango Sahara City minor rape case, to 25 years rigorous imprisonment.
The three who had been convicted in the case on Tuesday are Indrapal Singh Saini (40), Shiv Kumar Mahto (30) and Shrikant Mahto (31).
Apart from the rigorous imprisonment, the three were slapped with a penalty of Rs 20,000 each. If the convicts fail to pay the penalty, they will have to serve three more years each in jail.
Significantly, there are 22 more accused in the case apart from the three convicts. These accused, who include deputy superintendent of police Ajay Karketta and former OC of MGM thana Imdad Ansari, will face the trial in the same case.
The victim’s mother who had come to the court today observed that the three convicts should have been given capital punishment.
But advocate Mamta Singh who was pleading on behalf of the victim expressed her satisfaction over the sentence.
“I am satisfied with the terms of the sentence pronounced by the court. Now I will be looking forward to the court’s judgment on the remaining 22 accused. Then only I will consider that the victim got justice, ” observed Mamta Singh.
The minor victim had in an FIR lodged with Mango thana alleged Indrapal, Shiv Kumar and Shrikant to have raped her.
The minor who worked as a maid in the house of businessman Nanak Chand Seth at Sahara City in Mango had alleged that one of the accused Shiv Kumar had first raped her at Seth’s house when there was no one around. Later, Shiv Kumar’s friends Indrapal and Shrikant also raped her and had made a video clipping of the act.
On the basis of the video clipping, the three allegedly continued to exploit the minor repeatedly and later some days the victim was put in the flesh trade.
Police had arrested Indrapal, Shiv Kumar and Shrikant soon after the FIR was lodged, but the names of the remaining 22 accused had figured later during the investigation.
