Both men assaulted woman in car for hours.
By The American Bazaar Staff
BANGALORE: Two young men in Hyderabad, who were convicted of having sexually assaulted a female software engineer last year, have been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for their crime.
According to the Indo-Asian News Service, V. Sathish (30) and N. Venkateswarlu (28) were sentenced by a fast-track court in Andhra Pradesh’s Ranga Reddy court. The incident occurred on October 18, and their sentencing comes just under seven months afterwards – a speedy trial that was set up that way from the get-go.
The two were convicted under the Nirbhaya Act, a new component of the state’s anti-rape laws that was just recently implemented. Sathish and Venkateswarlu are the first to be sent to jail under the new law.
Sathish worked as the driver for a man named Manoj Agarwal, who worked a corporate executive for a tech firm in Hyderbad. Venkateswarlu, also a cab driver, was a friend of his, and both men had apparently seen the victim earlier and taken an interest in her. On the day of the incident, Agarwal had left his Volvo car with Sathish, who decided to use it for the crime.
Sathish offered to give the victim a lift, to which she agreed. Venkateswarlu was also in the car, posing as a passenger. When the victim got into the car, Sathish drove off, and the two men eventually took turns raping the woman. They drove all around the city for hours, assaulting her numerous times before dropping her off and leaving.
The two men were eventually caught by law enforcement four days later. Police suspected that they may have been involved in other sexual crimes, but their conviction and sentencing were only for the rape of the young woman in October.