Mumbai: Two get 20 years imprisonment for raping a minor, filming the act

MUMBAI: Two men were convicted and sentenced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment on Monday for sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl, and for filming the act and making it viral in 2017. The accused lived in her neighbourhood.
One of them, 27, who proposed marriage to the girl and was turned down, raped her; the other, 29, filmed the act. They had grabbed her from the street near her house and taken her to an isolated spot near a garbage dump. Special POCSO judge Seema Jadhav found them guilty under sections, including for gangrape under section 376 D of IPC.
“Where a woman is raped by one or more persons constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention, each of those persons shall be deemed to have committed the offence of rape,” the section reads.
The minor’s assault continued with the first accused raping her again by blackmailing her with the video a month after the first incident. The minor, however, thwarted the attempts of a third accused, 29, who propositioned her using the viral video for blackmail. The judge found him guilty of sexual harassment and sentenced him to two years rigorous imprisonment.
Among witnesses cited by special public prosecutor Veena Shelar to seek a conviction was the survivor. The evidence showed that images were found from the handsets of all three accused.
A the time of the incident the girl was in the ninth grade. The teenager recalled that in January 2017, when she was on her way home from a playground, the two gagged her and took her to a tin shed. She said when she tried to escape, the second accused who stood vigil at the door, pushed her back in. The minor said the first accused sexually assaulted her, beat her and threatened to kill her brother if she resisted. She said before letting her go, he threatened that if she revealed the incident to anyone, he would make viral a video of the act shot by the second accused. The minor said she was scared and did not reveal the incident to anyone. She also deposed on the second assault and the sexual harassment by the third accused.
The minor said the matter was reported to the police months later in April 2017 after her brother got to know about the viral video. She then confided in her mother and brother. The minor said on April 21, 2017 she gathered the courage to approach the police. The accused was arrested within a few days. While the first two have been in jail since, the third accused was out on bail.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court's directives on cases related to sexual assault)