Gurdaspur (Punjab), Apr 9 (PTI) A Punjab court sentenced three men to 20 years of imprisonment on Tuesday for raping a 25-year-old woman in Gurdaspur district five years ago and repeating the offence for over four months by blackmailing her with a video.
The sessions court sentenced Lovepreet Singh, Harvinder Singh and Prabhjot Singh to jail after they were found guilty. Two others, Gurpinder Singh and Balwinder Singh, were declared proclaimed offenders.
Additional district and sessions judge Prem Kumar slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convicts, failing which all the three men will have to undergo a year's additional imprisonment, public prosecutor K S Gill said.
The woman was gang-raped in Batala town in December 2014, after her tea was spiked by a juvenile, making her unconscious. Six men, who used to live near the woman's house, had filmed the incident and started blackmailing her for money. The accused repeatedly raped her on the pretext that they would upload the video on social media.
The court also awarded three years of rigorous imprisonment to the three men for criminal intimidation and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each. Both the sentences will run concurrently.
The trial of the accused who was a minor was carried out in a juvenile court, Gill said.
In her complaint, the victim -- a mother of two -- stated that she had been frequently gang-raped for nearly four months.
The incident came to light after the woman revealed it to her husband and brother-in-law. A case was registered in March 2015 under Sections 376D (gang rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
