Suryanelli case — All guilty get RI of varying periods

Varying fines from 20,000 to 10,000 rupees will also have to be paid by the guilty, on default of which they will have to face further rigorous imprisonment of one to two years.

Though most of the guilty were found to have committed offences like kidnapping and confinement of the minor girl and were awarded separate sentences of four years each and ordered to pay fine upto Rs 2,000, the sentence of imprisonment was confined to the maximum punishment, i.e., it will run concurrently. But the fine amount will have to be paid.

Special court judge M Sasidharan Nambiar in his sentence part of the historic judgement has also asked to collect the fine, Rs 4.35 lakh in total, and give it to the `Sooryanelli girl’.

Nambiar, in his sentence before the jampacked special court room in the collectorate, saw to it that maximum punishment is awarded for all those 35 among the 39 chargesheeted found guilty on the basis of the judgement made on Saturday.

Except five, all were found guilty of gangrape under S.376(2)(G) of the IPC. Many among them had the added stricture of single instance of rape and conspiracy under S.376(1) and 120(B) of the Indian penal code. Three were given punishment purely for single instance of rape. Two women among the total three in the list of the guilty were given four years RI and ordered to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 or undergo additional RI.

One of the prime accused in the case,Adv Dharmarajan of Ponkunnam and Elite Devasia,are absconding and hence the sentence for them was not pronounced by the court.Connected with the `Sooryanelli sex case’,in which an underaged girl was established to be sexually abused by many in many places,a private complaint filed by the girl in the Peermade court against former union minsister and congress leader P J Kurien stands stayed.Though an FIR was filed,the proceedings were stalled by the Supreme Court by a stay order before the charge sheet was given.