Noida gangrape: Juvenile convicted, sent to 3 yrs in reform home

A Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) today convicted a man, who was minor when he had gangraped a 24-year-old MBA student in 2009, and sent him to a reformation home of three years for his rehabilitation. JJB presiding magistrate Arul Verma said the presence of the man, who was over 17 years of age at the time of the offence, at the scene of the occurrence has been established by overwhelming evidence and the witnesses have correctly identified him before the court. The board, which sent the man into protective custody in a reform home at Majnu Ka Tilla here for the maximum period of three years, allowed his plea to suspend the sentence for a month to enable him to file an appeal against the judgement. It is pertinent to mention that a trial court had last year acquitted nine other adult accused in the case on the grounds that the identity of the real culprits could not be proved. The JJB has also asked the Uttar Pradesh authority to take steps for paying compensation more than Rs three lakh to the rape victim. It ordered perjury proceedings against two defence witnesses for giving false testimony before it. According to the prosecution, being represented through Special Public Prosecutor Neelam Narang, the incident took place on the evening of January 5, 2009, when the woman along with her male friend, was returning from the Great India Place Mall in their car which was forcibly stopped by several youths who were returning on their motorcycles after a cricket match. Brandishing cricket bats, four of these boys sat in the car and started beating the girl and her friend, pushed them to the back seat and drove the car to a secluded place near urban Noida village Garhi Chaukhandi, police had said. At the isolated place, their other associates also joined and 11 persons allegedly gangraped the girl and took away their valuables like mobile phones, wrist watch and ATM cards, it had said. The complaint was lodged with the Noida Police by the victim's friend. One of the accused had died during the trial.