Life in jail till death for 2 auto gang rape convicts

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 14

The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Poonam R Joshi today sentenced Sector 29 auto gang rape case convicts Mohammad Irfan (28) and Kamal Hasan to life imprisonment till death.

Recently, the prosecution had moved a file to add Section 376 E (enhanced punishment for repeat offenders) against Irfan as he was convicted on August 31, 2018, in another gang rape case committed near Sector 56.

The court, while deciding the enhanced punishment for Irfan as per provisions of Section 376 E, stated that the convict was to be awarded either life imprisonment till death or the death penalty.

However, the local court referred to a Supreme Court case in which it was held that the extreme penalty of death need not be inflicted except in the gravest of cases.

“Although Irfan is a convict in another case and has been charged under Section 376 E, the present offence does not fall in the rarest of rare cases,” said the court.

The court sentenced Irfan to life imprisonment till death and imposed a fine of Rs 3,00,000, to be paid to the victim, under Sections 376 D (gang rape) and Section 376 E. Another accused Kamal Hasan was charged under Section 376 D and imposed a fine of Rs 2,00,000 along with life imprisonment till death.

“Accused Kamal Hasan had accompanied the main accused and committed a serious offence and needs no leniency,” read the order.

The case

On December 13, 2016, a 23-year-old girl had hired an auto near Piccadily Chowk which had two persons — the driver and another person seated on the back seat. After the victim boarded it, the auto driver accelerated and jumped the red light at Sector 32. The auto was taken to an isolated place where the driver and the other person gagged her and raped her. She was dropped near Tribune Chowk and the convicts put a Rs 100 note in a pocket of her trousers asking her to buy contraceptive pills.