A Delhi Court on Tuesday convicted all five accused in the 2010 Dhaula Kuan gangrape case of charges of gangrape and abduction of a 30-year-old call centre executive.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat convicted Usman, Shamshad, Iqbal, Shahid and Kamruddin — all residents of Mewat region in Haryana — of offences under Section 376 (2) (g) (gangrape), Section 365 (kidnapping and abducting), Section 506 (criminal intimidation) and Section 34 ( sharing common intention) of the IPC. The court, however, acquitted Usman of the charge under Section 25 of the Arms Act.
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“The scrutiny of evidence… demonstrates that prosecution has succeeded in proving the charges of abduction, gangrape and criminal intimidation against all the five accused,” Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said.
The Delhi court, which has examined a total of 67 witnesses in the case, will hear arguments on quantum of sentence on October 17.
According to the prosecution, on the night of November 23-24, 2010, a 30-year old BPO executive from the Northeast, who was dropped by her company cab near Moti Bagh, was pulled into a pick-up vehicle and gangraped. The woman was then dumped near Mangolpuri industrial area.
The court relied on DNA and forensic evidence while convicting the accused and said, “The DNA found in the blood stains on the accused matched with the DNA of the victim. The DNA report clearly demonstrates that the victim had been raped by these five accused.”
The court also refuted the defence counsel’s argument that the samples of the victim were manipulated and tampered with. The defence had argued that the samples were manipulated by the investigating officer to substantiate the false accusations against the accused in the case, particularly Usman.
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The court also relied on the testimony of the victim, who had identified two of the accused after the first arrests were made in the case. “The victim has identified correctly all the five accused and mentioned where each of them were seated in the vehicle and also gave details about the manner in which she was gangraped by them. The victim has clearly deposed that accused Shamshad was sitting on her right side and accused Kamruddin on her left in the front of the vehicle. She has also deposed that accused Kamruddin held a pistol pointed towards her and that he had raped her first in the moving vehicle,” the court said.
The court acquitted Usman, in whose house the pistol was found, under Section 25 of Arms Act saying, “No doubt, the mere possession of ‘katta’ (country-made gun) by the accused is an offence under Section 25 of Arms Act. However, it is to be kept in mind that the katta was recovered from the house of accused Usman in Haryana and not in Delhi within the jurisdiction of this court,” the judge said.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
