A court in Mizoram’s Aizawl district on Tuesday sentenced two Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers to 42 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping and attacking a woman with acid in 2017.
But the court acquitted the two of the charge of killing the rape victim’s friend, whose body was found a few days later. The judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants were responsible for her death.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Sylvie Zomwanbhoy Ralte on June 12 convicted the two border guards – Nilanjan Das and Dinesh Kumar – in the case under various sections of the ICC and announced the quantum of punishment on Tuesday.
20-year aggravated imprisonment for a person accused of gang rape
The court sentenced both convicts to 20 years of aggravated imprisonment for gang rape, 10 years for rape causing grievous bodily harm, and 12 years for acid attack, amounting to a total of 42 years of aggravated imprisonment, which will run consecutively.
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The court also imposed a fine of $60 lakh each under these three charges, and in case of default, they will be subjected to an additional two months of imprisonment under each charge. Das and Kumar, residents of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh respectively, raped the woman and attacked her with a corrosive substance near the Jaskatha river in Silsuri West village in Mamit district on July 16, 2017.
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Police registered a case at Marpara police station two days later based on a complaint filed by the victim’s brother. The victim and her companion had gone to the forest near the Jaskatha River to collect crabs and wild vegetables when they encountered the accused, who were then placed in a border guard camp in the area along the Mizoram-Bangladesh border.
The survivor testified that the two men sexually assaulted her and then poured a corrosive substance on her face, causing severe burns and loss of vision in one eye. Her friend had briefly moved away from the scene when the accident occurred. She was found dead near the crime scene.
(With inputs from PTI)
