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Juveniles Sentenced in Mumbai Gang Rapes


The abandoned textile mill where two women were gang raped in separate incidents in Mumbai, India, August 23, 2013.
The abandoned textile mill where two women were gang raped in separate incidents in Mumbai, India, August 23, 2013.

An Indian court has convicted two juveniles for separate gang rapes in an abandoned mill in the western city of Mumbai.

Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters Tuesday that a judge found the teenagers guilty and sentenced them to three years in a reform institution.

One juvenile was convicted in the gang rape of a photojournalist passing through the mill in August of 2013. The other was found guilty in the gang rape of a telephone operator at the same location a month earlier. The telephone operator reportedly came forward to police after hearing media reports of the photojournalist's rape.

Double gang-rape convict Siraj Rehmat Khan is brought to a police van before taken to court in Mumbai, April 4, 2014.
Double gang-rape convict Siraj Rehmat Khan is brought to a police van before taken to court in Mumbai, April 4, 2014.

A Mumbai court in April sentenced three other convicts to death for their involvement in both gang rapes, the first such sentence since India approved a law giving stricter punishments for those convicted of sexual assault.

Two others were sentenced to life in prison in connection with the Mumbai gang rapes.

The government approved harsher punishments for rape in response to outrage over the December 2012 brutal gang rape and killing of a young woman in the Indian capital. The attack sparked nationwide protests, with demonstrators demanding better protection for women and justice for victims of such crimes.

Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma received a stay of execution, giving them time to appeal, after being convicted in the 2012 gang rape of the young woman aboard a private bus in New Delhi.
Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma received a stay of execution, giving them time to appeal, after being convicted in the 2012 gang rape of the young woman aboard a private bus in New Delhi.

​On Monday, the Indian Supreme Court stayed the execution of two men involved in the 2012 gang rape of the young woman aboard a private bus in New Delhi.

Their lawyer, A.P. Singh, told reporters that the court suspended his clients' death sentences while the two men appeal their case.

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