Convicts must remain behind bars till HC decision: Apex court

The Supreme Court on Thursday laid down tough standards in a case of gangrape of a student at a private university in Haryana by directing the two convicted students of the same university to remain behind bars till their appeal is decided by the High Court, preferably within five months. The two students were convicted and sentenced to 20 years each by a trial court for the offence of gangrape, filming the incident, circulating the objectionable clip on WhatsApp and blackmailing the victim on this pretext to consent to their sexual favours.

Terming it a peculiar case, the Bench of Justices SA Bobde and LN Rao said, “In the interest of justice, we do not propose to discuss the merits of the case as the appeals are pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. We find it appropriate that two interim orders passed by this court (staying suspension of their sentence) will remain in force till pending of the appeals.” The bench requested the HC to decide the appeal expeditiously within five months beginning from March 6, when the parties were asked to appear before the HC.

The case had caught the attention of the apex court after it came to observe how the accused had remained in jail throughout the trial but were released on bail upon their conviction. It was in this peculiar situation, apex court stayed the order suspending their sentence.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves who appeared for the victim submitted that there was a hard disk in which the pictures were stored and also a Whatsapp group through which the photographs were circulated. The accused had even threatened the victim based on which the victim's counsel had sought stay on suspension of their sentence.

Although senior advocate Shanti Bhushan who appeared for one of the accused sought to argue on merits, the bench said that this was a unique case where on conviction, convicts were released on bail. It said either it was open to the accused to attract criticism from the top court or agree to expeditious hearing of the appeal. Bhushan agreed to the latter option.

The victim had filed the FIR in April 2015 claiming that after taking admission in the University at Sonepat in 2013, she got acquainted with one of the accused. Over a period of time, both accused became good friends. But they raped and forced her to send her obscene pictures and blackmailed her following which she decided to lodge a complaint.