Mumbai court hands conviction on four who gang-raped photographer

According to The News International, A Mumbai court declared four men guilty of raping a photographer in the Indian city last year. Mohammed Salim Ansari, Siraj Rehmat Khan, Vijay Mohan Jadhav and Mohammed Kasim Hafeez Shaikh had earned the ire of womens' groups and concerned citizens when they gang-raped a 22-year-old in August last year while she was on assignment with a male colleague at an abandoned mill compound close to an upscale portion in the city's financial district.

Judge Shalini Phansalkar Joshi had said the four, who were aged between 18 to 27 at the time of their arrest, will be handed out life sentences on Friday's sentencing hearing. Aside from the rape, Joshi also said the four are also guilty of other sexual-assault offenses, which include showing pornography to the woman and forcing her to perform similar acts, stripping her, having unnatural sex and destroying evidence.

The attack, said The News International, had caused outrage as Mumbai was considered safer for woman. In New Delhi, a young student in December was gang-raped and was exacted with violence that she had met her untimely death, shaking the nation about women's safety in the country.

The four, said the online Indian paper, showed no emotion as they were tried in court and heard the court's verdict. It is to note that three of them, Jadhav, Ansari and Shaikh, were also found guilty by the Mumbai court on the same day for gang-raping an 18 year-old telephone operator earlier in the same mill compound. It was said that a fifth person is being tried in a separate juvenile court in relation to the attack.

Following the verdict, joint police commissioner Himanshu Roy commended the victim's strength amid the investigation and told NDTV news channel, "It's going to send a strong signal to would-be offenders. (There were) no words which can really commend her enough (for her efforts and cooperation in the case)."

Tags

Mumbai photographer gang rape trial, gang rapes on women in India, women's safety in India

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