Issewal gangrape: Five get life term till death

Legal Correspondent

Ludhiana, March 5

A young girl and boy going out for a drive could never imagine that the settling dusk of that cold February evening would engulf their life with spine-chilling darkness, the traumatic scars of which will haunt them for a lifetime, a Ludhiana court observed as it awarded life imprisonment till natural death to the five convicts in the 2019 Issewal gangrape case.

Those awarded life imprisonment by the court of Additional Sessions Judge Rashmi Sharma were Sadiq Ali of Mukandpur, Nawanshahr; Jagroop Singh, alias Rupi, of Jaspal Bangar village; Surmu of Khanpur village, Dehlon; Saif Ali of Dehlon; and Ajay, alias Lalan, of Jassad Paddi village. They were ordered to pay Rs 1 lakh each.

A juvenile was sentenced to undergo 20-year rigorous imprisonment and asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. The court made it clear the fine amount of Rs 5.5 lakh would be paid to the 21-yr-old victim in compensation.

Referring to the 2012 Nirbhaya case, which shook the nation, the court in its 112-page judgment observed the incidents of sexual assault were still on the rise. “Their only hope is to see the face of justice being illuminated by imposition of adequate sentence without permitting mockery and travesty justice,” observed the court, while declining the plea of leniency raised by the convicts.

“Needless to say conviction of accused of such offences, primarily gangrape, is not an end of the legal battle for the victim. She still has to fight numerous battles at the social front of disgrace, destitution, anguish and ostracism to overcome psychological wounds, agony, nightmare of fear psychosis to regain the trust and faith in goodness of humanity,” the court observed.

“Though the mindset of society still has a long way to awakening, the message must go out loud and clear there is no disgrace being survivors of sexual violence. The shame, in fact, has to be on the aggressor, not the victim,” remarked the court.

Special Public Prosecutor BD Gutpa said the prosecution examined 44 witnesses out of the total 54 to prove the guilt of accused. The victim and his friend deposed in the court.

On April 4, 2019, the police had filed a 700-page chargesheet based upon scientific investigation supported by 54 witness statements against the accused.

The woman was gangraped on Feburary 8 near Issewal village along the Sidwan canal after the car she was travelling in with a friend was stopped and she was dragged out. They later made a ransom call to one of the friends of the eye-witnesses accompanying the victim.