Shakti mills gangrape: Three convicted may face death penalty

Mumbai: In a landmark verdict, the Session court here became the first court to convict three men charged with raping the photojournalist in Shakti mills under section 376E of the Indian Penal Code, which invokes the death penalty for repeat offenders. On 20 March, 2014 the court convicted five persons — Vijay Jadhav, Qasim Sheikh alias Bengali, Salim Ansari, Mohammad Ashfak Shaikh and Siraj Sheikh — for gangraping a telephone operator and a photojournalist last year. Of the five, three — Jadhav, Bengali and Ansari — were involved in both cases, and the court was considering charging them under section 376E. [caption id=“attachment_1462721” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Sachin Gokhale/Firstpost[/caption] The accused recently approached the Bombay High court seeking relief from being charged under the section However, the High Court refused to interfere with the sessions court’s decision. The amendment to the IPC was one of the criminal amendments enacted after the 2013 Delhi gangrape. Investigations had revealed that the the accused had used the deserted mill compound on several occasions and had raped multiple women in the past. The accused had developed a modus operandi to replicate rapes ensuring their victims did not speak up after they were violated. The court is yet to decide on the quantum of punishment in the case pertaining to the gangrape of a photojournalist. The three men have already been sentenced to life imprisonment in the both cases. The 22-year-old photo journalist of a magazine was gangraped by Jadhav, Bengali, Ansari, Rehman and a minor when she had gone to the Shakti Mills compound in the Central Mumbai with a male colleague on an assignment on 22 August, 2013. Shortly after the story of the gangrape broke, the telephone operator came forward and alleged that she too was gangraped and brutalised by three of the five men in the same compound.