A Khunti court on Friday awarded life imprisonment to six convicts, including a former catholic priest in Barudih, in connection with the abduction and gang rape of five activists last year in Kochang village of Khunti district about 70 kms from here.
On May 7, the court had found Father Alfonzo Aind and five others guilty in planning and perpetrating gang rape of five women, involved in spreading awareness against human trafficking, on June 19, 2018 at Kochang village of Khunti district.
The court held Baji Samad, Ayub Shandi Purti and Junas Munda guilty of raping the girls, while Aind was found guilty of conspiring. Balram Samad and John Jonas Tidu were convicted for abetting rape. Another accused was found to be a minor. Tidu, Baji Samad and Purti were also slapped a fine of Rs.1 lakh each. The amount, the court said, will go to the victims.
In June 2018, five girls were abducted while they were performing a street play to spread awareness against human trafficking at RC Mission School in Kochang. Sources said that John Jonas Tidu, one of the main workers of the Pathalgadi movement arrived at the school and abducted the women on gunpoint. They were taken to nearby Chhoutali jungle, where the perpetrators raped them in an attempt to teach them a lesson for speaking on the Pathalgadi movement. Aind was aware of the development but did not inform the police. Police said that he asked the abductors to leave out two women as they were nuns. He did not raise his voice to protect the remaining five, they said.
The incident shook the State as the crime was not perpetrated out of any sexual desire but in a vengeful attempt to teach a lesson to the women for raising their voice against a movement in the hinterland. Pathalgadi, a tribal custom of installing stone plaques and other writings at the border of villages to demarcate the area, drew the attention of the State government last year after a few plaques restricted entry of administration and police in villages and declared them as liberated zones. The police arrested several gram pradhans in connection with the movement in rural Khunti and Simdega.
At least 19 witnesses gave their statements to the court during the course of the hearing in the gang rape case and the convicts were awarded punishment within 11 months past the incident.
