SHILLONG: The four out of the seven accused involved in the rape of Williamnagar girl in December last year, submitted fake certificates to prove that they are minors.
Earlier, nine juveniles out of the total 16 involved in the gang rape case were forwarded to the juvenile board.
The Public Prosecutor PL Sebastian informed on Thursday that soon after the forensic report was submitted in the beginning of September, four out of seven accused had submitted a plea to the fast track court stating that they were juveniles by producing certificates to prove the same, but their plea was rejected.
“Following this, the four accused had moved the Meghalaya High Court and subsequently a directive was sent to the Tura FTC to conduct an enquiry into the age of the four accused,” Sebastian said adding that the result of the inquiry revealed that the certificates produced by the accused were fake.
Following these findings, the Tura FTC has rejected their bail plea as a result of which the four accused have decided to yet again move the Meghalaya High Court. “Delay in disposing off the case is due to these reasons including late submission of the forensic report which took almost 6 months to be completed,” he said.
He hoped that the case would be solved within this year with the recording of the statement of the last witness (Investigation Officer) while informing that the next hearing to record the statement of the IO will be held in the middle of November.
It was on December 13 last year that the girl was raped mostly by juveniles, near Sacred Heart School in Williamnagar in East Garo hills district. The girl along with her friends were on their way back home from the Simsang Festival when they were accosted by the alleged rapists.