22 including Banna’s brother to face trial for minor’s rape

Jamshedpur, August 21:  Trials will begin against 22 people including Jharkhand health minister Banna Gupta’s brother Guddu Gupta in connection with alleged rape of a minor.

The lower court there had ordered everyone to be made accused. After which 22 people, including Guddu Gupta, challenged the order of the lower court in the High Court. Today, the High Court while giving its verdict said that the order of the lower court is absolutely correct. There is no need to interfere in this. Everyone will have to face trial in the lower court.

On January 19, 2018, an FIR was registered in the rape case of Mango with a minor. The victim’s mother had filed an application in the Jamshedpur court to make 22 people accused, including Guddu Gupta, the then DSP Ajay Kerketta and the then MGM police station in-charge Imdad Ansari.

Accepting the application, the court had ordered to prosecute all 22 accused in the case.

Advocate Devesh Azmani, on behalf of the victim in the rape case, told the court that the victim had given an application to the Jamshedpur SSP in November, but two months later, in January 2018, the FIR was registered. In the statement after the FIR, the victim had named all the accused. Apart from this, even during the testimony in the court, the victim gave information about the whole incident.

The accused told the court that they were neither named in the FIR nor in the statement of the victim, but after two years, the court made them accused by issuing notices under section 319 (making of an accused) CrPC.