Juvenile accused in Mumbai mill rape convicted

According to Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, the two were being sent to a borstal hostel in Nashik for three years to learn "good behaviour".

A Mumbai court in April had sentenced to death three men accused of raping the photo journalist inside Shakti Mills last year August as they were found repeat offenders and were charged  under the amended stringent anti-rape laws under.

This was the first such verdict in India in which rapists were sentenced to death for a repeat offence.

The three - Vijay Jadhav, Qasim Bengali and Salim Ansari - were identified as repeat offenders since they had earlier assaulted a telephone operator too in the same Shakti Mills area of Mumbai but had gone unpunished.

The young photojournalist was gangraped on 22 Aug 2013 inside the mill area when she entered it for a shoot. His male colleague was tied up as she was assaulted by the men.

Five men, including two minors who were now convicted, were accused of the attack. The culprits were charged with rape, conspiracy, common intention and unnatural sex.

Later it was found that they had also raped another telephone operator in the mill premises.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Indian has now emphasised for a more stricter Juvenile Justice Act.

While hearing a case on Monday, the SC has asked the government to re-visit the law and make necessary changes as it questioned the immunity enjoyed by the under-age offenders, reports said.

This comes after Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has said that  juveniles accused of  rape should be treated as adults.

She said on Sunday here that as per police records half the sexual crimes are committed by "16-year-olds who know the Juvenile Justice Act so they can do it."

"But now for premeditated murder, rape, if we bring them into the purview of the adult world, then it will scare them," she said.

"We are changing the law and I am personally working on it to bring 16-year-olds into the purview," she said.

It may be noted that one of the most brutal attackers of the Dec 2012 fatal Delhi bus gang-rape victim was a juvenile when he committed the crime.

Maneka Gandhi's predecessor in the previous UPA government, Krishna Tirath, had also wanted that juveniles above 16 years committing such crimes should be treated as adult offenders.

Photo: Creative Commons