Three defendants were sentenced to life in prison by a district court in Bareilly on Monday for a violent gang rape that occurred in May 2021 and involved the insertion of a knife into the victim’s rectum. The survivor had reconstructive surgery and stayed in the hospital for several months. After being taken into custody, Sonu Bhatia, Rajiv Kumar, and Monu Singh were eventually released on bail.
The case was made public after the survivor’s daughter filed a First Information Report (FIR) on May 23, 2021, claiming that her mother had left to meet a relative.
The survivor’s doctor, Dr. Anupama Katiyar, testified in court that,”She had injuries in her private parts, and had lost enormous blood.”
“After my mother didn’t come back for a while, I started looking for her and found her lying unconscious at Rajiv’s house,” the survivor’s daughter stated in the FIR. She said that Sonu, Rajiv, and Monu had gang-raped her while she was bleeding heavily and that they had given her a sedative in a soft drink. Harendra Rathore, an additional district government cousel, detailed the savagery of the act and compared it to the Nirbhaya case.
The survivor’s testimony and the evidence given by the court, presided over by additional district and sessions judge Ashok Kumar Yadav, resulted in the accused’s conviction. Each of the three accused received a fine of Rs. 30,000 along with a life sentence. The compensation for the survivor from the fines will be Rs. 75,000.
