Life for 7 of snake gang

Hyderabad: Special sessions judge V Vara Prasad of the Cyberabad Special Court that deals with atrocities against women on Wednesday sentenced seven of the dreaded snake gang members to life imprisonment for assaulting a young couple at a farmhouse near Pahadisharif and taking the nude photos and videos of the girl after threatening them with a live snake.
On July 31, 2014, nine members of the gang barged into the farmhouse where the couple were staying, beat them up and the watchman and took away several valuable properties such as gold, cash and phones. In her initial compliant to the police, the girl claimed she was gang-raped but later withdrew it.
Though the court was rendered helpless following the victim's disinclination to press gang-rape charges fearing social stigma, the judge did not allow this to turn into an advantage for the accused. He made a case from the prosecution's chargesheet and sentenced seven of the 9 persons to 30 years of jail term.
Prasad sentenced Dayyani and six others, Khader Barakba, Tayyab Basalama, Mohd Pervez, Sayyed Anwar, Khaja Ahmed and Mohd Ibrahim, to life imprisonment under Section 395 (dacoity) of the IPC, and directed them to pay a fine of Rs 5,000 each. Besides that, they were also sentenced to seven years' imprisonment under IPC sections 452, 506 and 354B and were fined Rs 5,000 each under each section.
Since all the sentences under different sections would run concurrently, each one of the gang members would spend a maximum of 14 years in jail.
The judge made use of the abundant evidence put forth by the prosecution under Section 354 B that deals with rendering a woman naked under coercion.
With the victim, a young woman of 22 years, mustering courage to file a complaint with the police, the process of criminal law was finally set in motion against the gang headed by Faisal Dayyani, a gym instructor from Pahadisharif and six others.
On the fateful day, according to additional public prosecutor Ponnam Devaraj Goud, the gang attacked the couple at their farm house, dragged them inside, stripped them, took nude videos and photos of the couple.
"If you complain to the police, these videos will be uploaded on social media", the gang members told the victims before leaving.
Of the remaining two members, the court acquitted one of them citing lack of evidence and the other was sentenced to undergo 20 months of jail term for retaining the robbed property with him. The seven were convicted and sentenced to varied jail terms for offences under IPC sections 452 (house-trespass), 395 (dacoity), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 354B (assault or use of criminal force against a woman and disrobing her). The gang had entered the farmhouse to commit a robbery. They forced the victim to strip by threatening to set a snake on her and then allegedly raped her in front of her fiance, police had earlier said. The seven convicts, who were earlier booked for gang-rape, were acquitted as the victim did not confirm the same during the trial and was silent on the allegation before the court.
According to police, the gang members used snakes to scare women and sexually assault them and film their acts. The snake gang members pleaded leniency saying that they have unmarried sisters to look after.