Shakti Mill gangrape: HC to hear death penalty petition on Dec 5

Bhavya Dore, Hindustan Times, Mumbai | 

Updated: Oct 31, 2014 10:15 IST 

The Bombay high court (HC) is yet to set a date for hearing the petition for confirming the death sentence of three Shakti Mill offenders, who were convicted for two gang-rapes. The matter has been adjourned to December 5. The three– Vijay Jadhav, Mohammad Qasim Shaikh, and Mohammad Salim Ansari – were convicted and sentenced in both gang-rape cases; that of a telephone operator in July 2013 and of a photojournalist in August of the same year. 

The trio was sentenced to death, following the new section 376E of the Indian Penal Code, which allows for capital punishment to repeat rape offenders. Two of them had then moved the high court against the constitutional validity of this provision. The court sought to know the status of these petitions, which are pending before a different bench, on Friday. 

Chief public prosecutor S Shinde asked for the petitions to be clubbed along with the confirmation cases. However, the division bench of justice VK Tahilramani and justice AK Menon said it “was not inclined” to do that. “What is in that petition?” the court further queried. The prosecutor informed the bench those petitions concerned whether the second conviction of the three men could be considered a subsequent one, and thus attract the death penalty. 

“Let those writ petitions be decided, then we will see,” said the court. The petitions had been scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, but did not come up. They have now been listed in 2015. As a matter of procedure, a death sentence awarded by a trial court has to be confirmed by the high court. “Jail authorities do not intend to reform them [the accused], but want to put forth that they are culprits and cannot be reformed so that the facilities granted to them are stopped,” the application said, pleading that the authorities be directed by the court not to threaten or assault the five men, and to have a male officer search them instead of the woman officer. 

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai/shakti-mill-gangrape-hc-to-hear-death-penalty-petition-on-dec-5/article1-1281154.aspx [last accessed 06.02.2015]

Death penalty is not a solution, say activists

ALOK DESHPANDE Updated: August 23, 2014 02:31 IST A year after the Shakti Mills gang rape, as the three convicts’ appeals against the death penalty are being heard in the Bombay High Court, women activists, lawyers and organisations feel capital punishment can never be the solution to stop atrocities against women. “Death penalty won’t solve the problem. Apart from being barbaric and inhuman, there is absolutely no evidence to prove that it lowers the rate of crimes against women,” said Persis Sidhwa of the Majlis, a forum for women’s rights discourse and legal initiatives. While awareness of rape cases had increased, stereotypes painting the victim in a negative light still existed. “We need to sensitise society to a great extent. It’s just the beginning,” she said. Lawyer and rights activist Manisha Tulpule too argued that rather than the gravity of the sentence, certainty of the sentence was important. “A survivor needs an assurance that the guilty will definitely be punished,” she said. Sonya Gill of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) said society believed quick and strong justice meant hanging the convict, which was of no use. On August 22, 2013, a photojournalist who had gone to the deserted Shakti Mills compound on an assignment, was gang-raped by five youths, including a minor. Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/death-penalty-is-not-a-solution-say-activists/article6342957.ece [last accessed 06.02.2015]

Sentences show India gets tough on rapists

By Udayan Namboodiri for Khabar South Asia in New Delhi April 15, 2014 

A pair of court rulings in high-profile rape cases sends a strong message that Indians no longer tolerate sexual violence against women.

In a landmark decision, a court in Mumbai on April 4th sentenced three men to death for taking part in separate gang rapes of two women at an abandoned textile mill last year. That same day, a high court in Kerala handed prison sentences to two dozen men acquitted in 2005 of charges in a 1996 multiple rape case. That 16-year old victim was raped at least 41 times over a 40-day period. 

"Times have become hard for rapists in India," Maharashtra State Women's Commission chairperson Sushiben Shah told Khabar South Asia. The Mumbai ruling marked the first case in which repeat offenders received a capital sentence under newly toughened Indian anti-rape laws. The legal changes followed outcry over the December 2012 case of a 23-year-old medical student who died after being gang-raped aboard a New Delhi bus. Four of the woman's six assailants received death sentences, a juvenile received jail time and prior to trial, a sixth alleged assailant was found dead of suspected suicide in his cell.

Now under the Indian Penal Code's revised section 376(e), repeat rapists can face capital punishment.

"There needs to be zero tolerance for such incidents,"Judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi said in handing down the sentences in Mumbai, according to AFP. "A loud and clear message needs to be sent to society." The judge sentenced Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali (also known as Mohammad Qasim Shaikh) and Mohammed Salim Ansari to death for their roles in an August 22nd, 2013 gang-rape of a female photojournalist at the abandoned Shakti Mills, and a previous July 31st, 2013 gang-rape of a telephone operator at the same site. They are appealing their sentences.

Four men and a minor all took part in the photojournalist's attack. The fourth, Rehman, received a life sentence. The juvenile is being tried by a special court. Mohammed Ashwaq Sheikh, another man who took part only in the late July gang-rape, also received a life sentence, AFP reported. "This has certainly sent a positive signal even though it is an open question whether capital punishment is desirable in a civilised country," National Commission for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma told Khabar. 

Slow justice for one

Though the victims of the Mumbai gang rapes got swift justice, such was not the case for the then-teen victim of the 1996 case which originated in Suryanelli in Kerala's Idukki District. On April 4th, a three-judge state High Court bench overturned the lower court's 9-year-old acquittal by sentencing main perpetrator Dharmarajan, to life in prison. The panel also sentenced two co-defendants to 10-year terms. The remaining 21 received terms of at least four years each.

"The miscarriage of justice in the Suryanelli case was a blot on the nation's image," Brinda Karat, a former Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP, told Khabar. "Now finally the hapless victims of rape can hope for justice."

Source: http://khabarsouthasia.com/en_GB/articles/apwi/articles/features/2014/04/15/feature-01 [accessed 24 April 2014]

Three sentenced to death for gang rapes in Mumbai

BY NIVEDITA BHATTACHARJEE AND SHYAMANTHA ASOKAN MUMBAI/NEW DELHI

Fri Apr 4, 2014 5:50pm IST Reuters

Three men were sentenced to death on Friday for two gang rapes last year in Mumbai, including an attack on a photojournalist that sparked protests in the city and raised fresh questions about attitudes to women in the world's largest democracy. A Mumbai court on Friday sentenced Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali and Mohammed Salim Ansari to death, the first time capital punishment has been given for rape not involving the death of the victim.

"There was no chance of reformation in these men and this sends a strong signal to society," special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters outside the court. Women's safety in India has been under the spotlight since the gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, which provoked nationwide protests and the introduction of tougher sexual assault laws. But a stream of high-profile attacks has raised concerns that little has changed.

In the Mumbai case, four men were convicted last week of gang-raping the photojournalist, who was attacked in the early evening of August 22 while on an assignment with a male colleague at an abandoned textile mill. Three of them were given the death penalty because they had also been found guilty of raping another woman at the same location in July. The fourth man received a life sentence and a juvenile charged for his involvement in the case is being tried separately.

 "I think the court has given a distinct, definite and welcome verdict," said Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police in Mumbai. The attack on the photojournalist provoked a public outcry partly because Mumbai, India's financial capital and the home of Bollywood, is considered one of the country's safest cities for women. Mahalaxmi, the neighbourhood where the two rapes took place, is a central district close to many new offices and bars.

(Additional reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Mumbai; Editing by Tony Munroe, Sanjeev Miglani and Ron Popeski) 

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/04/04/mumbai-gangrape-photojournalist-verdict-idINDEEA3308W20140404 [accessed on 24th April 2014]