Jun 24 2008
Bijal rape case: 5 accused get life imprisonment!
Bijal Joshi,24, who was gang raped on 31 December 2003 night and has ended her life on January 7, 2004 by hanging herself in the room, got justice after a long time of four and a half years. Delhi-based businessman Sajal Jain and his four friends, who gang raped Bijal after a New Year Eve party were sentenced to life imprisonment by an Ahmadabad sessions court on 20 June 2008, Friday.
Sajal, son of the owner of Delhi’s Apollo Millennium Hospital, who was a married guy and have 2 children was in an extramarital relationship with Bijal. Sajal (33), his friends Chandan (27), Ashok alias Mandan Jaiswal (26), Sugam Jaiswal (26), Dharmendra alias Karan Jain (30) and Manish Jain were celebrating new year party with Bijal in Ashoka hotel of Shahibaug area of the city.
The five men, who were on a drinking binge, spiked her drink and raped her in the hotel room number 106. They together gave physical tortures to her. They beat her and burned her with cigarette stubs. She was beaten, bitten and flogged into subjugation. Her back, arms, breasts and integral parts were burnt with cigarette butts. Later they abandoned her in a car on a highway and called up her sister, Vaishali, the next morning, asking her to pick up Bijal.
After her initial medical examination at the Civil Hospital on January 1, Bijal had been rushed and admitted to a private hospital by her sister for better treatment. She was in severe pain. Some of the Doctors, who checked her had said, “The injury marks were so awful that we could not sleep for days.”
Incapable to bear the tortures and humiliation, Bijal ended her life on January 7, 2004 and accused Sajal and his friends for her suicide.
Investigating officers had tried to portray Bijal as a woman of loose morals till senior officers stepped in after a public outcry.
Sajal was arrested then in Apollo Millennium hospital. There was a big drama going in the hospital. The doctors initially said that he was suffering from poisoning and didn’t let the police to meet him. It was told that he had consumed rat poison. He had been admitted to the ICU on January 9. The hospital hadn’t reported his presence to the cops and no medical reports were produced even as the team kept on waiting. His father told reporters that his son was innocent.
Later when it was reported that his father had a stake in the hospital, cops started turning on heat. He was shifted to the general ward and the doctors let it be known that his condition had “improved”. Finally Sajal was arrested and taken to Ahmedabad.
