West Bengal Court Sentences Four To Life Imprisonment For Minor's Gang-Rape, Leaking Video Of Assault

The Court of Additional Sessions Judge at Lalbagh, Murshidabad has recently sentenced four accused in the age group of 22-24 to rigorous imprisonment till the remainder of their natural lives, upon finding them guilty of gang-raping and blackmailing a 16-year old girl two years ago, during Durga Puja.

Accused were further directed to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh each to the victim girl, and the State was directed to pay her a compensation of Rs 4 lakhs as well.

In convicting the accused using electronic evidence, being a video which was made by the accused on their mobile devices of them sexually assaulting the minor, and used by them to blackmail her, ASJ Deepto Ghosh held:

[Accused] have been found to have gratified their animated passions and sexual pleasures, by having carnal knowledge of a minor child, VG herein, an innocent girl of tender age, like paedophilic disorderly persons- besmirching all sacred relations in tradition bound Indian society…from the above the prosecution through the oral, documentary and electronic evidences have been able to prove that the accused persons in their common intention, were instrumental in using the VG for pornographic purpose. They thus deserve to be convicted in absence of any negative legal evidence and benefit of doubt.

Brief facts

Prosecution submitted that the incident had occurred when the child was visiting her maternal uncle’s home in Murshidabad to attend Durga puja festivities when one of the accused, Basu, called her out of the house, took her to a deserted place with three of his friends and raped her.

The victim had befriended Basu on Facebook, and he used to regularly call her, which she had reciprocated, and had developed a friendly relationship with him.

It was submitted that subsequently, Basu involved his friends who took turns to rape her and also made a video of the act. The men subsequently threatened the girl with leaking the video in case she revealed the details of the sexual assault with anyone else.

While the girl had remained silent about her ordeal and not informed anyone due to the blackmail suffered by her, the videos were eventually leaked, and she finally broke down and revealed details of incident to her mother, who filed at FIR at the jurisdictional police station.

Subsequently, legal and judicial proceedings were initiated and the accused were taken into custody, and various items including a mobile phone containing the videos of them sexually assaulting the minor, were seized from them.

Charges were framed under Sections 6, 14 and 15 of the POCSO Act read with Section 376DA, 506, and 34 of the IPC and Section 67B of the IT Act.

The defence case was however, one of denial of the entire prosecution case, with a plea of innocence, without any witnesses being adduced.

Findings of the Court

In perusing through the cases of both parties, as well as the evidence on record, the Court was faced with two major queries.

First, whether the accused had committed the offences as enumerated in the various statutes above, and second, whether they are liable to be convicted of the offence they were being charged with and what the quantum of the punishment would be, if they were.

In placing reliance on the account of the incident delivered by the victim girl, the Court observed that she had testified that one of the accused, Basu, had earlier approached her on Facebook and after she had blocked him, he had got her number and used to call her.

Court noted that the victim was the only eye-witness to the incident, and on the day of the incident, when the victim was at her uncle’s place to attend Durga Puja festivities, Basu had called her up from his phone at midnight telling her that he had come to a ceremony near her uncle’s place and insisted that she met him.

Even after repeated denials by the victim, Basu arrived in front of her uncle’s house with three of his friends, and asked her to open the door.

When she opened the door, all four accused throttled her and took her to a nearby field and committed gang rape on her, while recording the ordeal and threatening her to not reveal it to anyone, or they would leak the video.

Court noted that the victim upon recollecting the incident, broke down and started and to cry.

Upon hearing the evidence of the victim girl’s mother, the Court noted that when the video was leaked, the girl had completely broken down and even contemplated suicide.

It was further revealed by the witness that even when, she inquired into the incident, on the video going viral, her daughter tried to commit suicide, out of shame and loss of social prestige. She narrated the trying experience, while sobbing, it was observed.

It was further noted that the accused had sent the obscene video on the Whatsapp of the victim girl’s mother’s phone, and had asked to meet her at a tea stall. The mother accordingly informed the police who were able to nab all the accused when they had attempted to meet the mother of the victim girl.

Various independent witnesses who were examined, including the doctor who had examined the girl, also delivered accounts of evidence which corroborated with her story.

Accordingly, in perusing all such evidence, including the electronic evidence in form of the obscene video which was extracted from a mobile phone belonging to the accused, the Court found that all four of them were guilty of the offences under the POCSO act, as well as gang rape under the IPC, and under Section 67B of the Evidence Act.

While the defence attempted to ask for lenient sentences due to the accused’s tender age, being young men who had recently embraced adulthood, and were the only support for their families, the Court reiterated the principle of Jusitia Et Liberate Prior (Justice is supreme, it comes prior to liberty.)

Judge is looked upon as an embodiment of justice. He is known second to almighty. The society which keeps him in high esteem and crowns him with distinct sobriety expects him to live up to its cherished expectations. The last bulwark of a State is its Courts of Justice. In the word of Honourable Justice Krishna Iyer - “Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future,” it was held.

In delving over the various sentencing philosophies, the Court was of the opinion that the victim having being made the subject of lust by her ‘lover and his friends’ being an innocent child, had been humiliated and brutally treated at the hands of the convicts who had ravished her to satisfy their lust, and exhibited it to the world at large. It observed:

As such the mitigating circumstances are found less so far as the convicts are concerned, though the aggravating circumstances are many.

Accordingly, the convicts were awarded sentences for the remainder of the natural life for the offence punishable under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, and Section 376DA of the IPC.

Case: State of West Bengal v Basudeb @ Basu Mondal & Ors

Case No: POCSO 56 of 2021

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