20-yrs jail term for bus driver, conductor in gangrape case

Baripada: A local court today sentenced the driver and conductor of a bus to 20 years' imprisonment each after convicting them in the gangrape of an 18-year-old girl in Mayurbhanj district in 2013.

District and Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Mohanty sentenced the two convicts while acquitting two others for lack of evidence. The driver and conductor were convicted under Section 376 (D) of the IPC.

The court also imposed a fine Rs 50,000 on each of the two convicts.

"The money to be realised from the convicted persons will be given to the victim girl," the judge said in the order.

In case of non-payment of the penalty, the duo would undergo imprisonment for another one year each, the court said.

The incident took place on September 5, 2013 when the girl was travelling from Rarua town to Mutapat and was brutalised by the driver and conductor inside the vehicle once other passangers got down.

The police had arrested four persons after the incident.

The two acquitted persons included a third staff of the bus.