New Delhi, Aug. 17: Four suspended soldiers of the President’s Body Guard were today convicted in connection with the daylight gang-rape of a 17-year-old student in the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s backyard.

The Delhi University student and her boyfriend had gone to Buddha Jayanti Park on October 6, 2003, when they were attacked by the four men, who were in uniform. After robbing the couple, two of the soldiers allegedly raped the girl while the other two kept watch.

The President’s Body Guard is an elite cavalry regiment of the army and is based in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, where its primary duty is to escort and protect the President.

Then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam did not make any public statement on the crime but his long-time secretary P.M. Nair has written in his book The Kalam Effect: “Kalam, normally so composed, was more angry than I had ever seen him.”

A city court found all four men guilty of kidnapping and robbery. Harpreet Singh and Satyendra Singh have been convicted also of gang-rape, and Kuldeep Singh and Manish Kumar of being accomplices. “I convict all of you. The argument on quantum of sentence would be heard on August 22,” the additional sessions judge said.

Harpreet and Satyendra can be jailed for 10 years or for life while the other two can expect at least seven years. The convicts, all of whom are in their early 30s, have already spent nearly six years in jail.

The men belong to Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and are cadres of the 1990-1995 batch of the army. Three of them are married.

The President’s Body Guard is a mounted unit, with horses for ceremonies at the presidential palace and BTR-60s, which are armoured personnel carriers, for use in combat. In 2003, it had seven officers, 15 NCOs and 140 enlisted men.

The prosecution presented 25 witnesses but the clinching evidence came from the victim who identified the four men and gave a detailed description of the crime.

Defence lawyer Ranbir Sharma said he would appeal in Delhi High Court after he received a copy of the judgment. He suggested the prosecution case had holes and that some evidence may have been planted. “The boyfriend of the victim, who claims the accused beat him up badly, couldn’t identify them,” Sharma said.

The families of the accused, some of whom were in Delhi today, said they respect the verdict. “If the court has found him guilty… if he has done this, he should be punished,” said Satyendra’s grandfather Ganpat Singh.