Delhi Court: Being a prostitute doesn't confer right to violate her

New Delhi, Nov 12: A Delhi court has sentenced four youths to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for abducting and

a Rwandan refugee, saying merely because she was working as a sex worker does not confer the right upon anyone to violate her dignity.

Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja convicted all the accused Deepak, Praveen, Vikas and Ashok Ekka,Delhi residents, for the offences under sections 366/ 34 (abduction with common intention), 376(2)(G)(gangrape) and 392/ 34 (robbery with common intention) of IPC.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs 59,000 on all the convicts and ordered that it be given to the victim as compensation. While refusing to take a lenient view, the court said, "It is apparent on going through the record of the case that the victim was a foreigner i.e. a refugee from Rwanda who was subjected to a heinous offence of gangrape by the convicts."

"It may be reiterated that simply because the victim was working as a sex worker before the incident in question, does not confer any right upon anyone to violate her dignity or to rob her and can certainly not be a ground to award less than the minimum prescribed punishment," the judge said in a 110- page judgement.

The court, while holding all the four accused guilty for the offence, said, "even if it is accepted that prosecutrix (girl) was doing the work of prostitution, in view of her claim that accused established sexual relations with her without her consent, the same has to be accepted by virtue of presumption under section 114­A of Indian Evidence Act."

According to prosecution, on December 1, 2012, at around 7 PM, the girl was abducted and gangraped in a car by four youths near Timarpur in north Delhi.

PTI