Shared common intent sufficient ground for conviction in gangrape case, says HC

The commission of sexual act by one person is sufficient to rope in the remaining accused in the offence of gangrape provided there is material to show they shared a common intention, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court held.

The high court upheld the conviction of four men for gangraping a woman and assaulting her male friend in June 2015 at Chandrapur in Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra.

Two of the convicts in their appeal claimed they cannot be held guilty under the offence of gangrape as they had not indulged in any sexual assault of the victim and that they had not shared any common intent prior to the alleged offence.

A single bench of Justice G A Sanap in the judgment of 4 July, a copy of which was made available on Tuesday, however refused to accept this contention and noted that the duo had overpowered the victim's male friend at the time.

"They (two convicts) could have been saved from the tentacles of the law, provided they had not overpowered the victim's male friend. In my view, this is sufficient to attribute the knowledge and intention to the two accused," the court said.

The bench said if the two accused had not held back the male friend then he could have raised a hue and cry and prevented the other two men from committing a ghastly act on the victim.

"The commission of actual sexual act by one of the accused is sufficient to rope in the remaining accused in the offence of gangrape, provided there is material to show that they shared a common intention," the HC said.

"In my view, the act of the two convicts facilitated the commission of the offence of rape by the other two accused," the bench added.

The court dismissed the appeals filed by the four convicts challenging a sessions court's judgment convicting them on charges of gangrape and sentencing them to 20 years in jail.

According to the prosecution, in June 2015, the victim and her male friend had gone to a temple and later were sitting in a forest area when the four accused approached them claiming to be forest guards and demanded money.

When the victim woman went to attend nature's call, two of the accused sexually abused her while the remaining two overpowered her male friend.

The four accused fled from the spot after a forest guard passing by the area heard the woman's screams.

An FIR was registered and the four accused were later arrested.

The high court noted in its order that the prosecution had proved the case against the four convicts beyond doubt.

The bench said the victim's evidence along with the witness statements and other corroborative evidence submitted by the prosecution proves the guilt of the four accused.