Shakti Mills gang rape: Court sentences 4 to life imprisonment

Mumbai: A sessions court on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment four persons convicted of raping a telephone operator in the Shakti Mills compound in central Mumbai. Yesterday, the court had held five men guilty for the gangrape of two women in the abandoned Shakti Mills compound last year. [caption id=“attachment_1084695” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shakti Mills, where the 22-year-old photojournalist was raped in Mumbai. Sachin Gokhale/Firstpost[/caption] A total of seven persons, including two minors, were arrested in both the cases in which three of them are accused in both cases. The court today sentenced the four persons convicted on the charge of raping a telephone operator in the mill compound premises. The court has adjourned the hearing on the quantum of sentence for those convicted in connection with raping a photojournalist at the same location to 24 March, reported CNN-IBN. The principal sessions court judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi convicted Vijay Jadhav, 19, Mohammad Qasim Shaikh, 21 and Mohammad Ansari, 28, in both the gangrape cases. In addition to the trio, the court found Siraj Khan guilty in the photojournalist gangrape case on 22 August, and Mohammad Ashfaque Shaikh, 26, guilty in the telephone operator gangrape case at the same compound on 31 July, last year. Two minors, one in each case, are being tried by the Juvenile Justice Board separately. The court convicted the five men for gangrape, conspiracy, common intention, unnatural sex and offences under the Information Technology Act. Welcoming the verdict, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil, who was present in the court, said, “The cases were tried in fastest possible time and victims have got justice….hope this verdict will act as a deterrent”. The first case pertains to the gangrape of a 22-year-old magazine photojournalist who had gone to the deserted Shakti Mills compound in Central Mumbai with a male colleague on an assignment on 22 August, 2013. Five men, (including a juvenile, whose case was separated), were charged with raping her there after assaulting her colleague. They are Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali, Salim Ansari, Siraj Rehman and a minor. The other case is of an 18-year-old telephone operator who was gangraped by five persons (including three of the accused in the first case) at the same premises on 31 July, last year. The accused in this case are Mohammed Ashfaq Sheikh, Mohamed Kasim Hafiz Sheikh alias Kasim Bengali, Salim Ansari, and Vijay Jadhav. The prosecution examined 44 witnesses in the photojournalist’s case and 31 in the other case. The defence examined three witnesses in the photojournalist’s case and only one witness in the other case. PTI