Written by: Jayant Sriram
2 min readNew DelhiJan 29, 2012 01:32 AM IST
First published on: Jan 29, 2012 at 01:32 AM IST
Noting that DNA testing should be made mandatory in all sexual assault cases,a Delhi court on Saturday sentenced five persons to life imprisonment for abducting and gangraping a mentally-challenged minor.
Even though guidelines for the collection of DNA samples from rape victims were included in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) over five years ago,the procedure is still not being followed by many city hospitals and forensic labs. The court noted that many still opt for the old method of blood grouping,which makes it hard for investigators to establish the liability of the accused as more than 25 per cent of the population may have the same group of blood and semen.
“It has therefore become necessary for investigating agencies and also for the State to ensure that in cases of sexual assault,particularly those involving gangrape,or where the identity of the accused is not known to the victim,or where the victim is a child,DNA profiling is made mandatory. I am hopeful that with due intervention of senior officers of State and Police,the existing scientific technology shall be put to its best utilisation,so as to ensure that the guilty are not let off and the innocent do not suffer,” Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said.
The court’s observations were made while sentencing Mukesh,Prabhans Yadav,Deepak,Ravinder Kumar and Rajeev,who were held guilty of kidnapping and raping a minor. The incident had occurred in March last year when the victim,aged 16-17,had come to visit her mother’s family in Jahangirpuri.
ASJ Lau imposed a fine of Rs 27,000 on each of the five convicts,and directed the government to give the victim a compensation of Rs 1 lakh.
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