A sessions court on Thursday found three of the four persons, convicted for gang-raping a photojournalist at the Shakti Mill Compound last year, guilty as repeat sexual offenders and can now be sentenced to death.
The court proclaimed them guilty as repeat sexual offenders after hearing the final arguments on the addition of Section 376 E in the photojournalist gang-rape case since the three men were also found guilty of gang-raping an 18-year-old telephone operator at the Shakti Mill Compound earlier.
Maximum punishment under Section 376 E is death.
The prosecution in the photojournalist case had filed an application to add Section 376 (E) against the three, claiming that they were repeat sexual offenders. These three men are common convicts in the telephone operator and photojournalist gang-rape case.
The court had last week convicted four men for gang-rape, criminal conspiracy, common intention, unnatural sex, criminal intimidation, wrongful restraint, assault, destruction of evidence under IPC and other relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
All of them were sentenced to life in both cases, however, the prosecution in the photojournalist case pressed for addition of Section 376 E on the convicts.
A total of seven persons including two minors, were arrested in connection with the two gang-rapes involving a telephone operator and a photojournalist in July-August 2013.
Principal sessions court judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi convicted Vijay Jadhav, 19, Mohammad Qasim Hafiz Shaikh alias Kasim Bengali, 21 and Mohammad Ansari, 28, in both the cases. while Siraj Khan was found guilty in the photojournalist gang-rape case (on August 22) and Mohammad Ashfaque Shaikh, in the telephone operator gang-rape case at the same compound on July 31 last year.
Two minors, one in each case, are being tried by the Juvenile Justice Board separately.
