Friday, September 13, 2013

Delhi gang rapists sentenced to death


The four men faced either life imprisonment or death by hanging [AFP]
An Indian court has sentenced four men to death for the gang rape and murder of a studen


Four men have been convicted over roles in rape and murder of 23-year-old woman in capital Delhi last year.


An Indian court has sentenced four men to death for the gang rape and murder of a student in the capital Delhi.
Friday's ruling came after her parents begged for the "cold-blooded" killers' execution.

Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta were convicted on Tuesday in the December attack of the 23-year-old woman, a crime that unleashed a wave of public anger over the treatment of women in India.

The woman died two weeks after the attack of internal injuries.

Judge Yogesh Khanna said on Friday the case fell in the "rarest of rare category", rejecting pleas for lighter sentence.

'Cannot turn blind eye'

Khanna said the attack "shocked the collective conscience" of India, and that "courts cannot turn a blind eye" to such crimes.
"This case definitely falls in the rarest of rare categories and warrants the exemplary punishment of death," he added.

The four men faced either life imprisonment or death by hanging.

The men called out to reporters as police drove them into the courthouse complex before the sentencing hearing.
"Save us, brothers! Save us!" they could be heard shouting from the police van.

One of the convicted men, Vinay Sharma, broke down in tears and cried loudly as the sentence was announced.

Earlier, protesters outside the court had demanded that the four men must be hanged.

As the news broke, crowds inside the building and outside the courtroom roared with cheers and applauded the judgement.

The prosecution team congratulated each other, with lead lawyer Dayan Krishnan saying: "We did our job. We are happy with this sentence".

The father of the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the family was also satisfied as he left with his wife and sons.

"We are very happy. Justice has been delivered," he told reporters inside court flanked by his wife and sons.

1 comment:

  1. It's a shame that one human rights atrocity is going to follow another. The state-killing of anyone, no matter how heinous their crimes, only brings the state and its citizens down to the level of these rapist thugs.

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