Scripting two histories by one judgment
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 27, 2013 -
Lifer for all four rapists :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao
Though there was some slight disappointment when the pronouncement of the sentence was deferred for five days as the counsel of one of the accused failed to turn up, the final verdict of the District and Sessions Judge, Manipur West on the gang-rape of a woman U-Morok seller from Tamenglong district by four persons including two personnel of Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) passed on June 25 must have surely brought about a ray of hope to many such victims of human lust, who are either waiting for justice or lack the courage to speak up fearing social reprisal.
Bringing down the curtain on the eight-month long trial, District and Session Judge Imocha Salam has sentenced all the four accused rapists to life imprisonment under various sections of Indian Penal Court (IPC).
All four of them have already been convicted and pronounced guilty by the same court in the last hearing of the case on June 12. But the quantum of punishment, which was to be pronounced on June 19, had to be deferred till June 25 as the counsel of one of the accused failed to appear in the Court on that day, citing some medical reasons.
Considering the nature of the crime, which was nothing less than the abominable offence of raping their own mothers, the court, in its final verdict, has observed that all the four offenders had no respect for motherhood and human value or care about social norms and behavior, and they have acted like the most degraded beast and all of them deserved exemplary punishment.
In short, the court has shuts all the doors for any possible space for leniency even to the extent of denying plea for anticipatory bail during the course of the trial. This was indeed remarkable.
Apart from the ray of hope for justice given to other rape victims in the State and elsewhere, what is most notable in the present case is the scripting of two histories by a single stroke of the judgment passed by the court of District and Sessions Judge, Manipur West.
By completing the trial in just about 8 months from the day of filing the required chargesheet by the concerned police station, it would now go down in the history of Manipur as the fastest rape trial ever conducted in the State.
On the other hand, it is also the first time in the legal history of Manipur that a law court has sentenced the accused rapists to life imprisonment and the victim survives to see justice being delivered with her own eyes.
This should be the precedent for any future rape cases.
Then only, to think of a society free from crimes against women, would no longer be utopian.
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