October 18th Abhaya Rape convicts get 20 years RI
A fast track court of the Ranga Reddy district courts today convicted the two accused –V Sathish and N Venkateswarulu for raping an IT professional on October 18th 2013. Termed as the Abhaya case by the AP police and media the trial was completed within 7 months and the courts have imposed a 20 years Rigorous Imprisonment and Rs 1000 fine under Sections 356, 342, 376 D of the Indian Penal Code. As part of the trial, 21 witnesses were examined and both the accused pleaded not guilty. But the circumstantial evidence was blatantly pointing towards them, along with the CC footage taken from the toll booths on the ORR roads and the phone call records she had made to her friends in Bangalore and Hyderabad saying that she was trapped.
The victim “Abhaya “ an employee of an IT company at Hitec City was kidnapped and raped by the two car drivers on October 18th last year. She was waiting for an auto rickshaw after shopping at a mall in Hitec City, when Sathish, the driver of the Volvo taxi car offered to drop her at her hostel. His friend Venkateswarlu, was seated in the car and was posing as a passenger. Once she got in the car the accused diverted the car, took the woman to the ORR road and crossed the various Toll gates and took her to Kolluru in Medak district on the outskirts of the city and raped her. They later left the woman at her hostel and threatened to kill her if she told the police. The 22 year old victim was too traumatized to report the case and had to be counseled and given confidence to come forward and record her statement. To solve the case the Police had taken the help of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to crack the case.