Mumbai, April 4
Three men convicted of gang-raping women at the abandoned Shakti Mills compound in Central Mumbai were on Friday sentenced to death under laws that provide maximum punishment for repeat offenders.
Kasim Bengali, Vijay Jadhav and Mohammed Salim Ansari were sentenced to death after they were
found guilty of gang-raping a 19-year-old telephone operator at the Shakti Mills
compound last year. Some weeks later, they similarly assaulted a photojournalist on assignment.
Awarding the death penalty under tougher laws for rapists introduced recently after the brutal gang-rape of a paramedic in Delhi in 2012, Sessions Judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi said the trio did not have the potential to reform. "The Mumbai gang-rape accused have least respect for the law. They don't have the potential for reformation, as per the facts of the case," the judge said.
Noting that the survivors were left traumatised, the judge said the trio deserved the ultimate punishment. "The Mumbai gang-rape accused were emboldened since law-enforcing agencies hadn't caught them. If this is not the case where death sentence prescribed by law is valid, which is?" the judge asked.
The court noted that the rapes were not spontaneous and were pre-planned.
