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Bhopal, Jan. 12: Vishambar Singh Gujjar of Gwalior has lost his driving licence after being sentenced in a gang rape case yesterday, earning the dubious distinction of becoming the first in the state to be penalised in this fashion.
“As per Motor Vehicle Act 1988 section 19 (1) and 21 (1), Vishambar will never get a driving licence, permit or registration in Madhya Pradesh,” the Regional transport officer (RTO), Gwalior, M.P. Singh, said.
Days after the Delhi rape on a moving bus last month, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan had ordered that sex crime offenders be denied driving licence and weapons licence. They would also not get passports or be absorbed in state government service, he said. Although passports are issued by the central government, clearance is needed from police who come under the state.
The district transport office took cognisance of a Gwalior court’s ruling sentencing Vishambar and two others to life imprisonment before cancelling his driving licence number MP 07-20100015130.
The other two accused have been “blacklisted” and will not be issued a driving licence in the state.
The three had been convicted of forcing a minor girl into their car on April 20, 2012, and gang-raping her. They had thrown her out of the car on the city’s outskirts.
Vishambar had got a two-wheel and four-wheel licence in August 2010.
Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of rapes in the country, with nine reported every day. Last year, state home minister Uma Shankar Gupta had admitted in the Assembly that 3,381 women were raped in 2011. Of them, more than 300 women were gang-raped. In 2009, the number of rape victims in the state was 3,071, which went up to 3,220 the following year.
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