Mumbai: Commission of actual sexual act by one of the accused is sufficient to rope in the remaining accused in the offence of gang rape, in case it is proved that they shared common intention, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has said.
The high court has upheld conviction of two men in a gang rape case observing that they overpowered the victim's male friend nad held him which facilitated other two friends to commit the ghastly crime.
The HC was hearing appeals filed by four challenging the order of the sessions court convicting them on charges gang raping a woman and assaulting her male friend in June 2015 at Chandrapur. The sessions court, in 2018, convicted them and sentenced them to 20 years in prison.
Two of these convicts contended that they cannot be held guilty under the offence of gang rape as they had not indulged in any sexual assault of the victim and that they had not shared any common intent prior to the alleged offence.
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The court, however, refused to accept the argument noting that the two overpowered the victim’s male friend at the time of the offence.
“They (two convicts) could have been saved from the tentacles of the law, provided they had not overpowered (victim’s friend). In my view, this is sufficient to attribute the knowledge and intention to the two accused,” Justice GA Sanap said. Had the two not held back the friend, he could have raised hue and cry and prevented the other two convicts from committing a ghastly act on the victim, the judge remarked.
“The commission of actual sexual act by one of the accused is sufficient to rope in the remaining accused in the offence of gang rape, provided there is material to show that they shared a common intention,’ the court said.
It underlined, “In my view the act of the two convicts facilitated the commission of offence of rape by the other two accused.”
Details On The Rape Incident
On June 14, 2015, the victim and her friend had gone to a temple. After offering prayer, they were sitting under a tree nearby when the four approached them claiming to be from the forest department and demanded money. When the victim girl went to attend nature's call, two of the accused followed her and sexually abused her while the remaining two overpowered her male friend. The four accused fled after a forest guard passing by the area heard the girl's screams.
A FIR was registered and the four were arrested.
In a detailed judgement, the high court observed that the prosecution had proved the case against the four convicts beyond doubt. The victim’s evidence along with the witness statements and other corroborative evidence submitted by the prosecution prove the guilt of the four accused.
