Korba: A court in Chhattisgarh has sentenced five men to death for the gangrape-murder of a 16-year-old girl and the killing of her two family members in 2021, holding that the crime has shocked the collective conscience of society.

The Fast Track Special Court in Korba district sentenced to death Santram Manjhwar (49), Abdul Jabbar (34), Anil Kumar Sarthi (24), Pardeshi Ram (39) and Anand Ram Panika (29) and handed a life sentence to the six accused, Umashanakar Yadav (26).

While delivering the judgement on January 15, Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Bhojwani held that this inhuman and cruel act of the accused is extremely perverted, heinous, brutal and cowardly, said special public prosecutor Sunil Kumar Mishra on Wednesday.

A copy of the order was made available on Monday.

Those given the death penalty were convicted under sections 302 (murder), 376 (2)G (gangarape) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The lawyer said he had sought the death penalty for all six accused but Yadav was sentenced to life imprisonment on medical grounds.

Yadav’s medical examination had shown that he underwent a surgery following an accident that damaged his private parts. His involvement in the rape was not established but his role in the conspiracy and murder was found and he was sentenced accordingly, Mishra added.

In 2021, the teenage girl was allegedly gang-raped and bludgeoned with stones before she was dumped in a forest leading to her death near Gadhuproda village under Lemru police station area of Korba district.

The accused also killed the girl’s father, aged around 60, and his four-year-old granddaughter who were with her.

According to police, the deceased man, a resident of Barpani village, had been working as a cattle grazer at the house of prime accused Manjhwar since July 2020.

On January 29, 2021, Manjhwar offered lift to the man, his 16-year-old daughter and four-year-old granddaughter to their village on his motorcycle. On the way, they stopped at Korai village and Manjhwar consumed liquor following which the other men also joined him, they said.

The men took the trio to the foot of a hill surrounded by forest near Gadhuproda where the 16-year-old girl was gang-raped in front of her father. After thrashing all the victims with stones and sticks, they dumped them in the forest before fleeing from the scene, police said.

Four days after the crime, when the deceased man’s son approached the Lemru police station saying three members of their family were missing, cops swung into action and rounded up the six men on February 2, they said.

After questioning them, police reached the crime site the same day and found the injured teenager alive and two others dead. The rape victim died while being rushed to a local hospital, police said.

The victims belonged to the Pahadi Korwa tribal community, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).

Citing police investigation, Mishra said that Manjhwar was pressuring the teenage girl to become his second wife. When she and her family objected to this, Manjhwar and his five associates raped and killed her and also murdered her two family members.

In its judgment, the court said this inhuman and cruel act of the accused is extremely perverted, heinous, brutal and cowardly because they have killed three innocent and weak people to satisfy their lust. This has shocked the collective conscience of the entire society.

“With respect to the rest of the accused except Umashankar (Yadav), it is certainly concluded that despite the present gruesome incident being proved, if they are allowed to re-enter the society (prison is also a part of the society), then they may again proceed to commit any kind of crime and due to this reason there seems to be no possibility of their rehabilitation or reformation”, it said.

The incident happened with a poor family belonging to the Pahadi Korwa tribe, declared as the adopted son of the Honorable President of India, the court said.

As soon as the news of this gruesome incident spread, there was widespread protest and anger not only in the state but also at the national level. This incident has shaken humanity, it said.

After the crime, the six men did not behave in any way to show that they had even the slightest remorse, the court observed.

“Punishment in proportion to the act committed by the accused is the demand of justice because justice is not done keeping in mind only the criminal but it is also necessary to pay equal attention to the victim who has been affected by that crime. Therefore, in the present case, this court is of the opinion that it is necessary to award the death sentence to the accused (except accused Umashankar),” the judge said.

Since the convicts raped and killed the girl and also murdered her two family members, the court said, it had to choose the death penalty as compared to the general rule of life imprisonment.