Four years after five men abducted a 30-year-old call centre executive from south Delhi and gangraped her, a Delhi court Tuesday convicted them on the basis of DNA tests.
Convicting them in the 2010 case, Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said: "...the DNA report clearly demonstrates that the prosecutrix (victim) had been raped by these five accused."
Shamshad, Usman, Shahid alias Chota Billi, Iqbal alias Bada Billi and Kamruddin were convicted on various charges dealing with abduction and gangrape. The quantum of punishment will be announced Oct 17.
The convicts' families were disappointed over the judgment and vowed to challenge it in the high court.
The packed courtroom was mainly filled up by relatives of the convicts.
The court also relied on testimonies of the witnesses.
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"The deposition of witnesses is in sync with each other and corroborates each other's version. There remains no doubt that the prosecutrix was abducted in a pick-up vehicle by five persons and subjected to gangrape," the judge said.
"The scrutiny of the evidence ... inevitably demonstrates that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the charges," the judge said.
The court held that the identity of the accused and of the vehicle used in the crime cannot be doubted.
The five convicts were present in the court when the ruling came.
The father of convict Shahid said his son has been falsely implicated in the case.
"My son is innocent... I will challenge the verdict in the high court," the devastated man told IANS.
According to police, the five men abducted the woman, who hailed from the northeast, at 12.40 a.m. on Nov 24, 2010 while she was walking home with a friend after her shift ended.
The abductors took her to Mangolpuri, raped her and dumped her on an isolated road there. The five were arrested from Mewat in Haryana.
After the incident, Delhi Police ordered all BPO companies in Delhi and the National Capital Region to drop women employees home while providing them security after 8 p.m.