A special court for SC/ST cases is likely to pronounce the judgment in the Thanagazi gang rape case in Rajasthan’s Alwar on Tuesday.
Five men had allegedly raped the woman in presence of her husband for two hours, filmed the crime, and later circulated its video on social media. Sengathir identified the three as Chhote Lal Gurjar, Mahesh Gurjar and Hansraj Gurjar. He said Mahesh Gurjar was arrested from Jaipur district’s Shahpura on Wednesday and Hansraj Gurjar from Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura on Thursday. It was immediately unclear where the third accused was arrested from.
The Rajasthan government drew criticism from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bahuajan Samaj Party chief Mayawati during the Lok Sabha election campaign for the delay in lodging an FIR in the case and not taking action until the purported video of the sexual assault began circulating on social media.
According to the FIR lodged on May 2, 2019, four men and a juvenile took turns to rape the woman near Duhar Chaugan between Thanagazi and Talvrikash for three hours after beating her husband while another man filmed the assault. The accused demanded Rs 10,000 from the victim for not putting the video of the gang rape on social media. The FIR was registered on the day the video of the ghastly crime went viral on social media.
Police filed the charge sheet against the accused on May 18, 2019, 16 days after the FIR. Chhote Lal (22), Hansraj Gurjar (20), Ashok Kumar Gurjar (20) and Indraj Singh Gurjar (22) were charged under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 327 (Voluntarily causing hurt to extort property, or to constrain to an illegal act), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354B (outraging the modesty of a woman), 365 (Kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 376D (gang rape), 384 (extortion), 395 (dacoity) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Police also invoked different sections of the SC/ST Act and the IT Act in the FIR.
The fifth accused Mukesh Gurjar, 28, was charged under different sections of the IT Act for circulating the video.
The prosecution produced 32 witnesses. The trial of the minor is currently on in the district and sessions court.
The state government removed the then superintendent of police Rajeev Pachar and suspended the Thanagazi SHO Sardar Singh for alleged laxity. On June 7 last year, the Rajasthan government ordered FIR against the SHO under section 166A(C) of the IPC, which covers a public servant failing to record any information given to him in relation to cognizable offence. Circle officer Jagmohan Sharma was transferred out of the district after the charge sheet was filed. Other staff of the police station was sent out of Jaipur police range.
HT has earlier reported the findings of an administrative inquiry into the case in which Pachar was found guilty of negligence as he did not visit the spot within 24 hours of the incident. A police inquiry prior to this had given him a clean chit. The state government ordered an administrative inquiry by Jaipur divisional commissioner KC Verma on May 9, 2019 to fix accountability of police officers in the case.