New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday while convicting two men—Manoj and Pradeep—in the 2013 Gudiya gang rape case held that the crime committed was "most grotesque" and the "collective conscience of the community was shaken". "In our society, minor girls are worshipped as goddesses on certain occasions, but in the present case the victim child, who was aged about five years at the time of the incident had experienced exceptional depravity and extreme brutality. The crime against the victim was committed in a most grotesque and revolting manner and the collective conscience of the community was shaken," the court said.

Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra convicted the two under sections 366, 342, 376 D, 201, 307, 372(2) of the Indian Penal Code and certain sections of the POCSO Act. On April 15, 2013, the five-year-old girl was kidnapped and gang raped by her neighbour and his friend in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar. The accused had also inserted foreign objects in her privates, leading to grievous injuries.