27 sexual offence cases disposed of by fast track courts

The six fast track courts set up in Delhi to deal with cases of sexual offences against women have disposed of 27 of the nearly 500 cases handed over to them till its inception early this month.

Out of the 27 cases, 12 have resulted in convictions with varying sentences, including a death penalty, while in 15 cases, the court has acquitted the accused.

In these 27 decided cases, 23 were rape cases while three were gang-rape cases and one of outraging the modesty of woman.

Out of a total of 1031 cases of sexual offences pending in the six district courts, till now around 500 cases have been transferred to these fast track courts (FTC) and the rest would be as and when they come up for hearing in the courts where they were being heard earlier.

The six judicial officers had taken charge of the fast track courts on January 4.

According to court sources here, there were 240 cases of sexual offences, including 29 gang-rape cases, pending in Saket court out of which Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Yogesh Khanna, who is also trying the December 16 gang-rape-cum-murder case of 23-year-old girl, has decided one rape case which resulted in an acquittal.

Khanna is presiding over the FTC having jurisdiction to try cases of South and South East Delhi districts.

A total of 96 cases of sexual offences were pending in Dwarka court in which 21 were of gang-rape and in the past one month, ASJ Virender Bhat, who is presiding over the FTC there, has decided eight cases in which four resulted in convictions and four in acquittals.

The first case to be decided in the FTC was by ASJ Bhat who gave death penalty to a 56-year-old convict who had raped a three-year-old child who died.

Similarly, 256 sexual offence cases were pending in the Rohini court in which 46 are those of gang-rape cases and the FTC presided over by ASJ M C Gupta has decided three cases and in each of them, the accused were convicted.

In Karkardooma court, where 227 cases of sexual offences including 28 gang-rape cases, were pending, the FTC of ASJ T R Naval has disposed of five cases in which two resulted in conviction while three in acquittal.

The number of sexual offence cases pending at Tis Hazari courts were 208 with 26 being those of gang-rapes and so far the two FTCs there, presided over by ASJ Nivedita Anil Sharma and ASJ Kaveri Baweja, have decided nine and one case respectively.

Of the nine cases disposed of by Sharma, two resulted in convictions while the other seven in acquittal. Similarly, the one case decided by Baweja has resulted inconviction.

No FTC has been set up at the Patiala House court where five cases of sexual offences are pending.

The decision of constituting these fast track courts exclusively for trying sexual offence cases was taken after the brutal gang-rape and assault of a para-medical student on December 16, 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi.

Apart from the girl, her male friend was also assaulted by six persons. The girl had died on December 29 in a Singapore hospital.

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