From left: Naser Khan, Ruman Khan and Sumit Bajaj: jailed

Agencies
Kolkata


A court in Kolkata yesterday jailed three men for 10 years for gang-raping a woman who waived her right to anonymity in order to challenge the stigma attached to victims of sex attacks in India.
Suzette Jordan, who died earlier this year of meningitis, won widespread praise for her decision to reveal her identity after authorities in the eastern city claimed she had fabricated the attack in February 2012.
A group of men had offered to drive Jordan home as the then 37-year-old was leaving a nightclub in the city’s upmarket Park Street area.
But they then forced her into their vehicle before proceeding to take turns in raping her and then dumping her on a road.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee initially dismissed the report of an attack as being part of a plot to discredit her administration after it had sparked protests.
But Jordan, who was a mother-of-two, then made what is an extremely rare decision in India to go public about what happened, telling interviewers she saw no reason to hide her identity when she had done nothing wrong.
Her move gave new impetus to the police investigation, eventually leading to the arrest of the three men - Naser Khan, Ruman Khan and Sumit Bajaj - who have now been jailed, although two other suspects remain at large.
Speaking after the sentencing at Kolkata’s sessions court, defence lawyer Asoke Bakshi said that the three men planned to file an appeal.
There has been extensive soul-searching in India about the frightening levels of violence against women since an infamous gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi in December 2012 in which the victim later died of her injuries.
Yesterday the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the central government on Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy’s appeal against the release of the “unreformed” juvenile convict in the case and sought to know if any measures had been taken on his post-release follow-up.
The juvenile, who was under 18 when he was arrested along with five others for the brutal rape of the student was tried under the Juvenile Justice Act. He was ordered to be kept in a remand home for three years.
The juvenile is set to be released on December 15.
Swamy in his plea asked the court to pass an order that “such unreformed juvenile not be released until it is demonstrably assured that he has reformed, ceased to be radicalised and is not a menace to the society.”
A trial court had sentenced the four rapists to death which was upheld by the high court. Of the six convicts, one was found dead in Tihar Jail.
The four convicts have appealed against the verdict in the Supreme Court.
l A New Delhi court has acquitted a man accused of raping a woman after he married her.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat acquitted Ram Krishana, court sources said yesterday.
According to the prosecution, a complaint was registered against Krishana in November 2014 in west Delhi’s Najafgarh police station, where the victim alleged he established a physical relationship with her on the false pretext of marriage. He, however, later refused to marry her.
During the recording of her statement as a prosecution witness, the woman deposed that she got married to Krishana on December 1, 2014 and is living happily with him and has no complaints against him.
“Even if it be taken that the accused was having physical relations with the prosecutrix (victim) on the promise of marriage, it is evident that he has fulfilled his promise by marrying her,” the court said in its order delivered on Wednesday.
“There is nothing in the testimony of prosecutrix (victim) to show that his promise was false,” it added.