The men then raped the woman at knife-point and robbed the house. (Representational)
A Delhi court has convicted four men for the gang-rape of a 35-year-old woman at knife-point, nine years after the crime was committed, while observing that she completely submitted to the act as there was immediate threat to her children's lives.
The court said the four men -- Ramjan, Nasiruddin, Sheikh Jahangir and Shah Alam -- broke into the woman's house at night to commit robbery and raped the victim after threatening to kill her children if she raised an alarm.
Holding the four men guilty of rape, additional sessions Judge Umed Singh Grewal said there were no injuries on the woman's body after the crime was committed as she had not resisted act because the perpetrators threatened to kill her children who were also held at knife-point.
"In that situation, no lady can be expected to oppose the misdeeds being committed with her. There was complete submission and hence, the prosecutrix did not suffer any injury and so, absence of any external or internal injury on her body is of no help to any of the accused persons," the ASG said.
The victim, in her complaint, said that in May, 2010, four men had entered her house where she was residing with her daughter and son and one of them put a knife to her neck and two others held her children at knife-point.
The men then raped the woman at knife-point and robbed the house.
The court noted that though no robbed article was recovered from any of the men, if the rape victim''s testimony is consistent then non-recovery of robbed articles causes no dent to the case.
"In the case in hand, the evidence of the prosecutrix is consistent thoroughly. She is corroborated by her son and daughter. Recovery of any article is used just to corroborate the testimony of the star witness," the court said.
The counsel for the accused had argued in court that the evidence found during investigation was planted at a later stage by the police and no substance was found against the four during the course of the case.