Bhubaneswar, July 4 -- An Odisha local court on June 26 convicted 14 women, including those who were minors at the time of the offence, and imposed Rs.1,000 in compensation on each in connection with a 23-year-old case in which a couple from Jharsuguda district was allegedly stripped, garlanded with footwear and paraded through the village with their faces blackened.

Senior civil judge (women's court)-cum-judicial magistrate First Class (JMFC), Jharsuguda, Pratyusha Kiran, convicted the 14 women under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman), and 355 (assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour a person) read with section 34 of the Indian P...