Five persons were sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in the much-hyped university gangrape case, by a fast track court in Sambalpur on Friday. A first year MCA student of Sambalpur University was raped by three different groups at three places on the night of February 23, 2008. Ten persons had been arrested and police registered three cases.
Friday’s judgment does not include four other accused of gangrape as the court will pronounce another judgment on Monday. “The ADJ (first track) Ashok Panda found the accused guilty after examining 25 witnesses and documentary evidence,” said Brajendra Panda, the prosecutor in the first track court.
The first gangrape took place on Budharaja hillock. Sachin Sharma, Balaram Adzed, Sunil Patnaik and Abinash Suren were arrested. Abinash was released on bail on health grounds. In another case, Sanjit Behera and Trinath Behera were arrested, while Kapilash Senapati, Md. Anwar, Sayad Munir and Abdul Arman were nabbed in the third incident. Trinath was sent to juvenile court as he was a minor. The court convicted the accused in the second and third case, while the judgment in the first case will be pronounced on Monday.
