Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A trial court in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh has convicted two men in the case of the gang-rape of a Muslim woman during the September 2013 communal riots. The court found the two men guilty of gangraping the 36-year-old survivor a decade ago.
Additional district and sessions judge Anjani Kumar Singh sentenced two men — Sikander and Maheshveer — to 20 years and a fine of Rs 10,000 for rape and another two-year term for criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, according to reports.
This woman is the only one among the seven rape victims who had brought rape allegations and has continued to fight the case in court.
Despite the threats, intimidation the victim was the only woman who persisted with fighting her case in the lower courts of Muzaffarnagar, seeking shelter with different relatives year after year and relocating three times for her safety.
Three men, Kuldeep Singh, Maheshvir and Sikander Malik – were originally accused of gang rape. Kuldeep Singh died in 2020.
The accused had been charged under sections 376(2)(g) which deals with punishment for gang rape, 376-D, rape by medical caregiver, and 506 which deals with punishment for criminal intimidation, of the Indian Penal Code.
This could be the first conviction under section 376(2)(g) of the IPC, which recognises rape during communal violence as a specific violence since the 2013 amendment of the criminal laws, LiveLaw has reported.
Communal riots that swept Muzaffarnagar and its neighbouring district, Shamli in August and September 2013 took at least 62 lives, including 42 Muslims & 20 Hindus and more than 50,000, the majority among them Muslims, were forced to flee their homes, according to reports.
Speaking to Article 14, the Muslim rape survivor recalled the day when she was raped while her first child, then three months old, was held at gunpoint, she said, “That day my child gave me strength. My child who was just an infant then is now grown up (he is now 10).”
“I fought these 10 years for my children,” said the victim, who now has two more children, aged 13 and six, “So that no one has to face what I faced. Now I just want to focus on my children and their education. I just want to be their mother.” (With media inputs)
