The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court upheld the life sentence of four men pronounced by a trial court, for raping a 23-year-old woman from Delhi, in 2018. A division bench of justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan passed the order on Saturday, March 4, while hearing appeals filed by the five convicts, of whom four were sentenced to life.
Observing that the survivor’s evidence was “cogent, trustworthy, and unimpeachable”, the court said that the prosecution had proved the case beyond doubt. “The video of the survivor pleading to the accused to let her go has shocked the conscience of this court. Considering the seriousness of the crime, the accused do not deserve reduction of punishment,” the court said. The court also reduced the sentence of one convict sentenced to seven years, to three years of rigorous imprisonment.
The incident happened on December 3, 2018, when the Delhi-based woman reached Kumbakonam from Chennai via train at around 9.30 pm. Stepping out of the Kumbakonam railway station, she hired an autorickshaw to get to her accommodation. However, the auto driver Gurumoorthy took a different route and dropped her off in Chettimandapam, which is around 4 km from the railway station, and left. Following this, two friends of Gurumoorthy, Dinesh Kumar and Vasantha Kumar, posed as highway patrol police and offered to help her. They took her to a secluded spot, called over two other persons – Purushothaman and Anbarasu, and raped her. They also videographed the entire assault on their phones.
She later filed a police complaint, and all five were arrested. In 2020, the Thanjavur Mahila court convicted Dinesh Kumar, Vasantha Kumar, Purushothaman, and Anbarasu to life imprisonment, and Gurumoorthy to seven years imprisonment. It was Gurumoorthy’s sentence that the Madurai Bench reduced, citing that he did not participate with the four in the act.