On October 6,2003,a 17-year-old Delhi University student had gone to Buddha Jayanti Park,near Rashtrapati Bhawan,with a friend to attend a programme of exiled Tibetan leader Dalai Lama. Suddenly,four men of the elite Presidents Bodyguards team accosted them they allegedly beat up the youth,and while two of them raped the girl,the other two stood guard,according to the prosecution. On Monday,a city court held all four men guilty under different penal provisions: Harpreet Singh and Satyender Singh were convicted under the charge of gangrape,while Kuldeep Singh and Munish Kumar were held guilty of aiding the crime. Additional Sessions Judge S K Sarvaria fixed August 22 to hear arguments on the quantum of sentence. Harpreet and Satyender face a maximum punishment of life sentence; Kuldeep and Munish,convicted of robbery and kidnapping,can get up to seven years in jail. The prosecution examined 25 witnesses but what sealed the foursomes fate were statements of the victim and her friend,who also identified the accused during an identification parade. The prosecution also established during the trial that all four were on duty when the crime occurred,thereby pre-empting the defence of an alibi. The defence,led by advocate Ranbir Sharma,contended that the police had ulterior motives and were thus falsely implicating the four. Post-verdict on Monday,advocate Sharma did not want to comment as the quantum of punishment is yet to be pronounced. But,he added,The court should keep in mind the clean antecedents of the convicts while sentencing them. Sharma,who represented three convicts,said,We will definitely move the Delhi High Court in appeal. Munishs counsel Maninder Singh also claimed the case against his client had discrepancies. The complainants boyfriend had failed to identify Munish at the first instance, Singh said. His blood test and serum reports were also negative. Family dissatisfiedAs was perhaps expected,family members of the two men convicted expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict,while relatives of the two convicted of lesser charges were relieved. They said they would wait for the court to release Kuldeep and Munish,who have already spent six years in jail. Kuldeeps father Mool Singh tried to remain tightlipped but when prodded,said,If he (Kuldeep) is guilty,he should be punished. In his late-sixties,Singh refused to react when asked whether he believed his son was guilty. But Satyenders father Parmanand Singh said his son was victimised by the police. My son is innocent. How can such a crime go unnoticed in an open park that is usually crowded? Besides,the girls testimony was also replete with inconsistencies; it should not have been relied upon. Septuagenarian Ganpat Singh,who claimed to be Satyenders grandfather in distant relation,said,If my grandson has committed the crime,he must get the most severe punishment. I am going to stand by justice. Family members of the other two convicts refused to comment on record. No one from the victims family was at the court. The case investigating officer told Newsline that the victim is now untraceable. The incident had provoked a strong reaction from then President A P J Abdul Kalam,who had directed the brass of the defence establishment to personally look into the matter. The Army had also ordered a separate inquiry; the four accused were sacked within a fortnight of the incident. The prolonged trial saw another twist when 155 pages of the case file kept in court went missing in September 2004. After special instructions from the High Court,the sessions judge hearing the case had subsequently instructed all lawyers related to the case to submit whatever certified copies of documents they had with them to re-construct the file.
