Sign In / Register
Make This My Home Page | Feedback |RSS
You are here: IE »   Story

27 witnesses, not 1 hostile: less than a year, cop guilty in Marine Drive rape

  • Print
  • Mail This Article
  • Comments
  • Add to favorites
  • In a crowded Mumbai courtroom today, as additional sessions judge K U Chandiwal convicted a former police constable to 12 years’ rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor girl at a Marine Drive police chowky, the message couldn’t have been clearer: speedy justice can be delivered.

    It took less than a year to convict the guilty—the crime was committed on April 21, 2005. And it didn’t happen in a fast-track court: a regular sessions court simply fast-tracked proceedings. And above all, it took 27 witnesses standing firmly by their original statements. And those accounts had been given to a police force which effected its biggest turnaround in recent times by keeping secret each of the 27 identities.

    Among those whose testimonies clinched the verdict were the victim herself, a 17-year-old college student; a male friend who was accompanying her until minutes before the rape; and that of a Marine Drive building’s security guard who had first pointed out the victim and her friend to a supposedly intoxicated More.

    Ads by Google

    Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters that he had urged the court to give More a life sentence. The state should appeal for a more stringent conviction, Nikam said.

    Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy said: “Our stand has been vindicated, we have dealt with this case very firmly all along. We expedited the case. We had immediately dismissed More, we carried out an expeditious investigation, the trial has got over in a year. We are waiting for the full judgment. We will go to a higher court and ask for enhancement of the punishment. It should be at least life imprisonment.”

    ... contd.

    Next1234

    Be the first to comment.

    Post a Comment
    Name:
    Email:
    Title:
    Maximum characters allowed     
    Comment:
    TERMS OF USE:
    The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).
    I agree to the terms of use.