Updates: Mumbai's Shakti Mill Gang Rape Case; Bombay High Court commutes death sentence of 3 convicts to life imprisonment

The Bombay High Court has commuted the death sentence of three convicts to life imprisonment in the Shakti Mills gang rape case. In 2014, the Mumbai Sessions Court had sentenced the three accused Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali and Salim Ansari to death. The three accused were presented in the court today through video conferencing. A bench of Justice SS Jadhav and Justice Prithviraj Chauhan pronounced his sentence to be commuted.

Vijay Jadhav, Qasim Shaikh, Salim Ansari and Mohammad Ashfaq Shaikh raped a journalist who went to Mumbai's closed Shakti Mill to do photography. Judge Shalini said that the brutality shown by these convicts with the victim puts their crime in the category of 'rarest of rare', hence they are sentenced to death.

Of these four, three (Vijay Jadhav, Qasim Sheikh and Salim Ansari) were earlier also found guilty in the telephone operator rape case and were given life imprisonment. For the first time in Maharashtra, the accused of rape have been found guilty under section 376E. This section is imposed on those who commit habitual offences.