Hyderabad: The Sangareddy district sessions court sentenced three persons, including two cousins, for the gang-rape of a 16-year-old last year. Three others, who were booked for the crime, were acquitted.
At about 11 pm on May 15 last year, Shivaratri Venkat, a friend of the victim, Shivaratri Anjaneyulu and M. Ramulu gang-raped the minor after threatening and taking her to a place near Gopalpur T-road on the outskirts of Thimmapur.
While they were about to leave her at her residence, the victim’s relatives tried to stop them. However, they escaped with the minor girl and went to a graveyard at Gajwel and gang-raped her again and forcefully took her ear studs and left her at the Pragnapur bus stop around 4 am. At about 6 am, she boarded a bus and reached her home and narrated the ordeal to her family.
Earlier, Venkat had befriended the victim over the phone. During their conversations, he promised to marry her. After a month, he visited the victim at her place in Rayavaram late in the night and took her to a graveyard in Gajwel on his two-wheeler. Once there, Venkat, along with his friends, gang-raped her.
The victim approa-ched the Jagdevpur police station and filed a complaint.
On May 19, the police arrested the accused and sent them to judicial custody. Gajwel ACP P. Narayana took up the investigation and questioned 23 eyewitnesses. After FSL tests, police filed a chargesheet 65 days after the incident.
The first district sessions court, Sanga-reddy, found three of the six guilty, including Venkat, 21, Shiva-ratri Anjaneyulu, 21, and M. Ramulu, 24. They were sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of `15,000 fine.
ACP Narayana said, “Under the guidance of Siddipet police commissioner D. Joel Davis, during investigation, we collected all technical evidences, which exposed the accused.”
Mr Narayana added that all police officers who were part of the investigation of the case would be rewarded by Mr Davis.
