Datiya:
Six men accused of gang-raping and robbing a 39-year-old Swiss tourist on March 15 this year have been awarded life imprisonment by a fast-track court in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh.
While five convicts - Baba, Bhutha, Rampro, Gaza alias Brajesh and Vishnu Kanjar - were given life imprisonment for rape, the sixth accused Nitin (Rishi) Kanjar was given the same sentence for robbery, DIG (Chambal Range) D K Arya said today.
All the convicts are residents of Kanjar Tola settlement in Jharia village, located about 2 kms from the spot where the victim was raped and her partner robbed while the couple was camping for the night on their bicycle tour to Agra.
Datia police filed a chargesheet on March 26 without conducting any test identification parade (TIP) of the accused and the trial started on March 30.
Giving details of the case, police said recording the statement of the victim was a major challenge for the prosecution as she had gone back to Switzerland after filing the complaint.
After some persuasion, her statements were recorded via video-conferencing by a special commission headed by the metropolitan magistrate of Patiala House Court on May 25.
The Commission recorded her statement in the Swiss Embassy while the accused were present at Datia collectorate.
The incident, coming barely three months after the brutal December 16 gang-rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in Delhi, had sparked outrage in India and abroad.