Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, May 4

Named 'Victim A' and 'Victim S' in court files, two girls were paraded naked and gang-raped in a Nuh village about eight years ago in the presence of their family members and relatives, who too were attacked and two of them died of injuries.

Gang-raped, paraded naked in front of kin

• Two girls, one of them a minor then, were raped by the four convicts in August 2016
• The crime took place in front of their parents and siblings
• Two of the relatives succumbed to head injuries later

A CBI special court in Panchkula today awarded the death sentence to four convicts — Vinay, Jai Bhagwan, Hemant Chauhan and Ayaan Chauhan. A fine of Rs 2.05 lakh was also slapped on each of them. The court, however, acquitted Tejpal Yadav, Amit Yadav, Ravinder Yadav, Karamjit, Rahul Verma and Sandeep. Victim A, eldest among six siblings, was 16 years old then while her cousin Victim S, who was visiting the former at the time of the incident, was 21. On the night of August 24, 2016, Victim A went to sleep around 10 pm with her three sisters and Victim S in a room located in their fields at a secluded place in the village.

Victim A's parents, younger brothers and maternal uncle and aunt were sleeping on cots outside another room about 40 feet away.

Around midnight, Victim A heard someone wailing outside and when she checked out, a few men were beating up her parents. Her maternal uncle and aunt too had been attacked and were writhing in pain. Both succumbed to head injuries later.

"The attackers were shouting 'you all consume beef'. Where are your girls? We want to rape them," Victim A's brother, then 12, had said in the trial court. Victim A's 10-year-old second brother, who too was attacked, had tried to escape towards the room where the girls were sleeping. Blood oozing out of his cheek, he was chased by four-five assailants into Victim A's room. They demanded cash and gold from Victim A and Victim S, which they refused.

The assailants tied the family members before returning to attack the girls. As Victim A resisted, the attackers turned towards Victim S and dragged her into a room where she was gang-raped.

"I shut my eyes in shame," Victim A's brother had told the court. Victim S too had narrated her ordeal in the court: "They all took turns to brutally rape me. I was conscious till four persons committed the crime. They were continuously beating me and even scratched my skin with nails. As I fell unconscious, I couldn't remember how many raped me. One of the attackers urinated into my mouth when I sought water."

After an hour, the attackers brought back Victim S naked to the room where she was sleeping. When they again demanded cash, a bag with Rs 1.5 lakh was handed over to them, she said. The assailants then forcibly dragged Victim A into the room where her cousin was gang-raped. She too was brutally raped. "I was conscious till four of them raped me," Victim A had told the court.

The assailants, said witnesses, were looking for kerosene to set the entire family on fire, but couldn't find it. They then locked both the rape victims along with other children in one of the rooms and walked away. Victim A's mother somehow managed to untie her 12-year-old brother, who alerted other relatives in the village and all of them were freed.