A single bench of Justice Prakash Kharel on Thursday sentenced police constable Birendra Bam, one of the prime accused in the rape case, to six years in jail and also ordered him to provide Rs 100,000 as compensation to the victim. [break]
The court also sent another police constable Karbir Thalal and policeman Jagadish Pandey to three years in jail in connection with the same case.
Suntali was raped by a group of policemen at the District Police Office in Achham on June 25, 2009. Suntali had filed a rape case against six policemen.
Of the six accused, Bira Dutta Badu, Dansingh Bhandari and Naribhan Mahatara were released on the condition of appearing in person in the court when required. Bam, Thalal and Pandey were sent to judicial custody for further investigation.
The government had formed a committee led by former Justice Krishna Prasad Basyal on December 3, 2009 to investigate the gang-rape case after women rights activists took up the case. However, the committee was later dissolved after the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that a committee cannot be formed to probe into a case that is under the scrutiny of a district court.
All the three convicted policemen had expressed dissatisfaction over the court´s verdict. Min Bahadur Singh, a close relative of Bam, quoted him as saying, "Our police department had already done injustice to us. Now, we failed to get justice even from the court."
Related story
‘Chor’-police
-1779250876.webp)
