...Guilty as charged Three convicted in Park St rape case

TT, Calcutta, Dec. 10: The Park Street rape case turned a corner today with the conviction of three accused but the prime suspect is still at large.

Naser Khan, 31, Ruman Khan, 28, and Sumit Bajaj, 24, in whose Honda City the crime was committed in the early hours of February 6, 2012, were pronounced guilty by the city sessions court.

The sentence will be delivered at 2pm tomorrow, according to public prosecutor Amalendu Chakraborty. The charges carry a maximum punishment of life in jail and a minimum of 10 years.

The assaulted woman, a 37-year-old mother of two, had died of illness in March this year after setting an example by sticking to her account in the face of scepticism expressed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee who described the crime as " sajano ghatana (fabricated incident)".

"I welcome the court verdict," Mamata said in Delhi .

Prime accused Kadir Khan and co-accused Ali are still to be arrested in spite of red-corner notices against them. There was no mention of them in today's verdict and the duo can be tried only after their arrest.

The lady was raped inside the car by a group of men who offered to drop her after they met at a Park Street hotel.

Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya, the additional district judge of fast-track court-II, pronounced the verdict in a courtroom where only lawyers and the three accused were present.

Relatives of the accused as well as the woman waited outside the courtroom.

Bajaj, the youngest of the three accused, broke down inside the courtroom minutes after the verdict was pronounced and the judge had left.

The assaulted woman's father, sister and an aunt were present on the court premises. "We are grateful... for the verdict. I want to meet Madam Damayanti Sen as she was the one who first stood by my daughter when others were not believing her," the father said.

Sen, the then Calcutta police crime chief, had given primacy to the allegations made by the woman, taken the probe forward and found out the names of the men who actually raped her.

The officer was transferred soon, triggering charges that she was shunted out for nailing the official line that the rape allegation was fabricated. Sen is now posted as inspector-general of police (administration). Despite repeated attempts, she could not be reached for comment today.

Family members of the convicted trio complained of a "media trial".

"We are dissatisfied with the verdict... we will move the high court," said defence lawyer Ashok Bakshi. Another defence lawyer, Tapesh Bhattacharya, echoed Bakshi.

Prosecution lawyers said the court took cognisance of all the direct evidence submitted by the police to reach the judgment.

Sources said that despite the absence of conclusive medical reports, depositions by at least three witnesses that they saw the woman leave the hotel with the accused men proved clinching.

The three convicts were sent to judicial custody for a day and will be produced before the court tomorrow. They will be allowed to speak in the court before the quantum of their punishment is announced. The trio have been in jail since February 2012.