Nitin Doodgaonkar, son of former Zilla Parishad chief of Parbhani district, Limbaji Doodgaonkar, and nephew of former Congress minister, Ganesh Doodgaonkar, and Kalyan Renge, son of former president of the Agriculture Produce Market Committee, Bansidharrao Renge, were among the 10 accused found guilty by the court which delivered its judgement on Monday. The two girls, aged 14 and 16, were raped 24 times within 48 hours at eight different locations in the district.

Judge S N Joshi found the accused guilty under Section 376 (G) (gang rape) and Section 366 (A) (procurement of minor girl) of the Indian Penal Code. All three politicians had been arrested on charges of shielding their sons and nephew. Nitin and Kalyan later surrendered to the police.

Thegirls had in fact been raped by a series of persons, some of whom were unknown to each other, while travelling from Partur tehsil to the district headquarters in search of employment.

The girls, who left home on July 3, 1994, spent the night at a relative's house at Raipur village. The next day, they arrived at Osmanpur village, from where they boarded a train for Parbhani.

In the train, they met two boys, who were known to the cousin of one of the girls. After reaching Parbhani, the boys suggested that they go for a movie, where they met three youth at Talreja cinema hall. After the movie, the latter - Suryakant Dhage, Arun Mapari and Suresh Kopare - told the girls they would look after them for the rest of the day. The first two boys then departed and the trio took the girls to a friend's house. Here, they raped both girls in a banana field. Thereafter, the girls were taken to Pimpalgaon, where the trio pushed them into a water cannal and raped them again.

Still in the clutches of the trio, the girlsheaded for Parbhani. Here the they were joined by Rameshwar Kanade, a friend of the boys, who took them to Hotel Visawa, where they girls were raped again. Then, the boys invited Nitin Doodgaonkar and Kalyan Rege to join them and the girls were gang-raped by the sons of the policians as well. Nitin and Kalyan then departed.

The quartet proceeded to an under-construction school, Santineketan Vidyalaya, where they raped the girls once more.

After that, three of the four boys left the victims in the custody of Suryakant Dhage, who dropped them off at the railway station warning them of dire consequences if they approached the police. Being midnight, the girls decided to sleep on the railway platform.

Early the next morning, on July 5, a porter spied the shivering girls and allowed them to rest in the retiring room. But his offer did not spring from sympathy. The girls were raped yet again, this time by a police constable, Ashok Tulsiram Sarode, and two others. Later, the girls were thrown with the usualthreats.

After their latest ordeal, the girls wandered into the railway colony area, where they met a railway employee, Bhansingh Bundela, who said he was moved by their story and would find a way to help them. Leaving the girls at his residence, Bundela said he would return after work but instead returned with a friend, Raju Eknath Mahalge. Now, the girls were raped by Bundela and Mahalge.

The duo then asked Munna Parihar, an Independent corporator with the Parbhani Municipal Corporation, to join them. So Parihar, along with a friend, Mahesh Monaphale, took the girls to a bungalow - Shakti - at Mamta Colony and raped them there.

Finally, the girls were released and they boarded a train to Purna, where they related their tragedy to a constable at the railway station. Initially, neither the railway police nor the city police agreed to lodge a complaint.

It was only after news of their two-day ordeal spread by word-of-mouth in Parbhani that the police initiated action. Medical examinations confirmedthat the girls had been gang-raped. Later, the victims also identified all the accused in an identification parade.

The issue drew a spontaneous reaction from various social and women's rights groups in the district and echoed in the state Assembly as well. Public pressure grew with the case being entrusted to the Criminal Investigation Depaertment (CID) as the local had delayed the arrest of Nitin Doodgaonkar and Kalyan Renge.

The trial, which began on November 17, 1997, was completed within 68 days. During this period, the court recorded the statements of 45 witnesses. Eventually, 11 of them turned hostile. The court therefore acquitted six of the accused for want of sufficient proof.

While the 10 accused and their counsels urged the court to be lenient in its sentence as the accused were young, Special Prosecutor Prakash Suryavanshi said the fact that the victims were minors should be considered.