A district and sessions special court in Mangaluru on Thursday sentenced four men from Bengre, off Mangaluru, to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment after finding them guilty of gang-raping a woman from Bantwal at Bengre-Alive Bagilu in November 2018.

Three minors, who were also allegedly involved in the crime, were being dealt with by the Juvenile Justice Board.

The II Additional District and Sessions Special Judge, V.N. Jagadish, passed the orders under Section 376(D) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code, as well as Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The convicted persons are Prajwal, Arun Amin, Aditya Salian, and Abdul Riyaz. He also imposed a total fine of ₹74,000 under different heads on the convicts. The court had convicted the four men on July 27.

According to the chargesheet, on the afternoon of November 18, 2018, an unmarried couple from Bantwal was visiting the Alive Bagilu area in Bengre when the four convicts, along with three minors, approached them and asked about their whereabouts. Later, the accused held the male partner hostage, threatening to kill him, and raped the woman one after the other. They also threatened the couple not to reveal the incident to anyone.

While the woman kept quiet for two days, she revealed the incident to her parents when one of the accused called her after two days and asked her to visit them again. By then, the Panambur police, under whose jurisdiction the offence was committed, had booked a case after learning of the incident through sources. The then Commissioner of Police, T.R. Suresh, formed a special squad, guided by the then Deputy Commissioners of Police Hanumantharaya and Uma Prashanth, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manjunatha Shetty, and led by Panambur Inspector K.M. Rafique, to apprehend the accused. The four were arrested on November 27, 2018.

The investigation was conducted under the supervision of Mr. Shetty by the then Police Inspector K. Kalavathi, and the then Assistant Commissioner of Police (North) Srinivas Gowda submitted the chargesheet before the court. Examination of witnesses commenced on January 9, 2020, and was completed on April 9, 2024, after the examination of 40 witnesses out of 65. Special public prosecutor Jyothi Pramod Naik conducted the prosecution.

Published - July 31, 2026 08:07 pm IST