Madhya Pradesh: Pantry car manager gets life term for raping a girl in a moving train

The victim retracted from the statements in the court, refused to identify the accused but was sentenced after the DNA report was found positive

Published on: Jun 19, 2023 at 6:12 pm

Bhopal. In the case of rape of a woman in a moving train, the court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. The accused was the manager of the pantry car of the train. In this case, which lasted for about one and a half years in Narmadapuram of the state, the First Additional Sessions Court, Itarsi Harsh Bhadoria, based on the reports of witnesses and DNA test, sentenced the accused Bhupendra Singh to life imprisonment under various sections. 

Although during the trial, the victim changed her statement and refused to recognize the accused, but the judge sentenced the accused after the DNA report was found positive. The incident took place on 11 February 2022 in Sampark Kranti Express. Along with life imprisonment, the court has also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on Pantry Car Manager Bhupendra Singh Tomar. Along with this, he has been sentenced to 2 years under section 323 for assault, 506 for threatening to kill. 

What is the whole matter? 

Actually the matter is of 11 February 2022. The 21-year-old victim is a resident of Old Delhi. On February 9, she went from Delhi to Mumbai. While returning, the girl sat in the AC coach of the Yeshwantpur-Nizamuddin Sampark Kranti Express. She slept on the floor by spreading the blanket. At around 8 o’clock in the night, manager Bhupendra Singh woke him up, said – why are you sleeping here, the seat is vacant in the general compartment. Go to sleep He forcibly took the girl towards General Bogi. Going near the canteen compartment, the girl was asked to sleep there. After some time the manager picked up the girl and took her to the pantry car. raped her. During this, when the victim protested, the manager asked to throw her out of the train, after which the victim, crying, picked up her belongings and went to another compartment. 

The victim had told other passengers of the train about the incident. The victim had complained at the station after the train arrived in Bhopal. The railway police had registered a case against the manager of the train’s pantry car for rape, assault and other sections. After the incident, the accused manager hid in another coach of the train. He was arrested from Jhansi railway station. The court argued that the accused, while working as the manager of the pantry car of the train, has committed a serious offense like rape, which in any case does not deserve minimum punishment. 

The matter went on in the court for about one and a half years. The court has given its verdict on the basis of evidence and DNA report. The accused Bhupendra Singh Tomar (32) resident of village Mansinghpura Morena was sentenced to life imprisonment by the First Additional Sessions Court Itarsi Harsh Bhadoria. 

The victim refused to identify the accused in the court 

In the statement given during the hearing in the court, the victim said that Bhupendra Singh Tomar was not the person who did wrong things to her in the train. The police have caught the wrong man. Some soldier has done wrong with him. The victim was asked that when the person who wronged her was identified in the jail, she had recognized the accused. Also agreed. Then the victim, after remaining silent for a while, had said that the soldier had done wrong to her, not the manager, but when asked by the prosecution, the victim accepted that she had reconciled with the accused, so she appeared in the court like this. giving statement. While the victim girl had lodged a case against the manager of the pantry car, who was arrested by the railway police from Jhansi railway station. 

Conviction due to DNA report 

After the rape of the victim in the train, the police got her medical done and also collected samples. After medical examination of the manager of the pantry car, the sample was sent to the lab for DNA report. In the DNA report, samples taken from the clothes of accused Bhupendra Singh Tomar were matched with the samples of the victim. The accused was found guilty after the DNA report found human sperm of the manager. In this whole case, the court found him guilty of rape only after the DNA report was found positive. 

In the case, ADPO HS Yadav said that the DNA report, the documents prepared by the police proved to be important in getting the punishment in this case. The victim refused to identify the accused. However, the victim had identified the accused in the jail in front of the Tehsildar that Bhupendra had raped her, so despite the reluctance and refusal to identify in the court, the documents and DNA report could not be denied. In the same case, 15 witnesses, 49 documents and investigation report were prepared. Testimony of 15 witnesses, including the victim, and her mother, train passengers, police, doctors. After which the court sentenced the accused manager of the pantry car to life imprisonment. 

DNA report becoming important evidence in court

Only last month, in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, the court sentenced the husband to ten years of imprisonment for having physical relations with his minor wife. In this case also, the court had taken the DNA report as the main evidence.

Actually in Khandwa the minor mother had given birth to the child. After which the District Court convicted the husband for having physical relations with a minor and sentenced him to ten years imprisonment. The basis of punishment was the child born to a minor. The DNA report of the child and the accused was found positive, proving that the accused had physical relations with the girl when she was a minor. Even during the hearing in the court, the minor wife defended the accused husband. But on the basis of medical evidence, the accused was found guilty. 

The court of Special Court (POCSO) Prachi Patel in Khandwa sentenced the accused to ten years imprisonment. On behalf of the prosecution, the case was argued by ADPO Rupesh Tamoli. The incident is of 20 October 2018. Then the father of the minor had lodged the missing complaint of the daughter at the police station. When the police investigated, the daughter was freed from the possession of the accused Sawan in Pithampur. On October 20, the victim was going to Indore with her grandmother by bus, when she got down on the way and went to Pithampur via Indore with her lover Sawan in another bus. And she had married her lover in the temple. 

Talking to The Mooknayak, legal expert and advocate Mayank Singh said that the court looks into every aspect of the incident. The statements of the complainant have been changed or the evidence has been influenced, but the court decides only after the DNA report and the statements of the doctors and IOs. DNA report is the investigation done by a team, in expert opinion it is recognized by the court. Therefore, even if the complainant changes the statement later, the conviction will be proved. In these cases, the accused are unlikely to get the benefit of doubt.