Doctor, 2 policemen get life term till death for raping 20-year-old woman

Raipur, Nov 22: A court in Chhattisgarh's Durg district has sentenced two policemen and a doctor of a government hospital to imprisonment for rest of their life for raping a 20-year-old woman in 2014. The victim, who had became pregnant, committed suicide by hanging herself in 2016.

Fifth Additional District and Session Judge Subhra Pachouri on Thursday convicted the doctor, Gautam Pandit, and the policemen, Saurabh Bhakta and Chandraprakash Pandey, and awarded them life imprisonment, Additional Public Prosecutor Kamal Kishore Verma told PTI on Friday. The convicts would not be released from jail till their "natural death", he added.

"The court observed that this was an instance of protector turning into a predator. In view of the offence committed by the accused, they deserve no leniency", Verma who appeared for the victim, said.

The gruesome incident had occurred on June 19, 2014, at the government hospital in Supela in Durg district where the woman was admitted for treatment of some ailments, he said. Pandit, then posted in the hospital, and the police constables Bhakta and Pandey, who were on duty there, took the woman to the guardroom and raped her, he said. They also filmed the act and started harassing the victim using the clip, the additional public prosecutor said.

After she was discharged from the hospital, the two constables again sexually exploited her by threatening to upload the video on social media platforms, he said. When the two cops learnt the woman had become pregnant, they forcibly gave her a pill to abort the foetus in December 2014, he said. However, mustering courage, the victim in January 2015 lodged a police complaint following which the three accused were arrested, Verma said.

After a year of registeringoffence, the girl committed suicide by hanging herself in her house in January 2016, Verma said. The trio was convicted under sections 376 (2)(B) (being a public servant, takes advantage of his official position and commits rape on a woman in his custody), 376(D) (gang rape) and 506B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, he added.