Krishna Pujari
THE Maharashtra government has filed a petition in Bombay High Court seeking confirmation of death sentences to the Shakti Mills gangrape case. The petition will come up for hearing before a division bench in due course of hearing.
On April 4, the Sessions Court had convicted four rapists – Vijay Jadhav (19), Mohammad Kasim Bengali (21), Mohammad Salim Ansari (28) and Siraj Khan – for gangraping a photojournalist inside the Shakti Mills compound in Mahalaxmi, on August 22, 2013.
While one of the rapists Siraj was awarded life imprisonment, the remaining three were awarded the death penalty under the provisions of section 376 (e) of the Indian Penal Code which provides for the maximum sentence of death to repeat offenders. Earlier three rapists -Jadhav, Bengali and Ansari-were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sessions Court for gangraping a telephone operator in the same mill compound in July, 2013.
As per law, whenever an accused is awarded the death penalty by a sessions court the state government has to get the sentence confirmed from the Bombay High Court. While the confirmation petition has been filed, the convicts are yet to file their appeal against the conviction.