National
Rape-accused get clean chit
The Appellate Court in Mahendranagar has given a clean chit to two men who were convicted by the Baitadi District Court of gang-raping a 17-year-old girl.Bhawani Bhatta
The District Court on March 5, 2013 sentenced Sagar Bhatta and Khagendra Awasthi to 13 years in jail and fined Rs 50,000 each after finding them guilty in the rape case. The two youths were accused of raping the girl, who was living with her relatives in a rented room at Patan Bazaar in Baitadi to attend her SLC examinations, on March 22, 2012.
Following the Appellate Court verdict, victim's father Ram Singh of Sigas in Baitadi said their hope of punishment for the guilty was shattered as they did not have the sources or means to take their case to a higher court. He also lamented over the fact that the Appellate Court gave the verdict without calling them for a hearing. "I had heard that the court gives a verdict only after hearing both parties," he said.
The victim's family is planning to seek legal recourse after receiving the official report from the Appellate Court. A joint bench of Judges Ramesh Prasad Rajbhandari and Nar Bahadur Shahi had overruled the District Court verdict.
Narendra Bahadur Chand of the District Attorney's Office in Mahendranagar had defended the case on behalf of the victim while advocates Sudarshan Dev Bhatta, Rajendra Saud and Ekraj Bhatta had pleaded in favour of the accused.
Jagdish Bhatta, a section officer at the Appellate Court, said they cannot comment on the matter as the official report is not yet out. An official at the district attorney's office said they could ascertain whether a writ petition against the verdict could be filed at the Supreme Court after receiving the written report.
Meanwhile, the victim who was recovering from the trauma from the incident has once again lost her mental stability following the Appellate Court verdict, her father said. The victim's relatives said the verdict had come as a harsh blow to the economically deprived family dependent on daily wage for sustenance.