Mumbai: A sessions court here on Friday awarded death sentence to the three convicts in the Shakti Mills photojournalist gangrape case under an amended IPC section for committing repeated offence.
The court on Thursday held them guilty under the section for the repeat offence of rape, which made them liable for the maximum sentence of death.
Principal Sessions Judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi convicted Vijay Jadhav (19), Kasim Bengali (21) and Mohammed Salim Ansari (28) under section 376(e) of Indian Penal Code.
This is the first time that any court has applied the section since the amendment made in February last year. The court on Thuraday said this "enhanced section is not only to convict a repeat offender but should also send out a strong message to the like- minded people of the society".
The amended rape charge section 376(e), which came into effect after the 2012 Delhi gangrape case, attracts the maximum penalty of capital punishment.
The three were earlier convicted in the gangrape case of a telephone operator at the Shakti Mills compound and sentenced to life imprisonment in that case.
The court had last month framed an additional charge against the three under section 376(e).
The 18-year-old telephone operator was gang raped on the premises of Shakti Mills in July last year a month before the photojournalist was brutalised on August 22.
The three men have already been sentenced to life imprisonment in that case.
According to prosecution, this qualifies them for punishment under the amended section in the photojournalist gangrape case.
The 22-year-old photo journalist of a magazine was gangraped by Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali, Salim Ansari, Siraj Rehman and a minor boy when she had gone to the Shakti Mills compound in the Central Mumbai with a male colleague on an assignment.
The Bombay High Court had last week refused to interfere with the sessions court's decision to frame a fresh charge for repeat offence of rape.
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