New Delhi:Four men have been held guilty by a Delhi court of raping and murdering a 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow, the four men could face the death sentence.
While a fifth man committed suicide in jail in March and the sixth attacker, who was 17 at the time of the assault, was sentenced on August 31 to three years in a reform centre, the maximum punishment for a juvenile found guilty of rape and murder.
Her case led the government to clear new laws which make stalking, voyeurism and sexual harassment a crime, and provide for the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victims death.
Delhi gang-rape:Three convicts to appeal in the High court
NewDelhi: At least three of the four men convicted on Tuesday of gang raping and murdering a student on a New Delhi bus last December will appeal the guilty verdicts, lawyers said on Tuesday.
The judge said they were convicted of “the murder of a helpless person” and found them guilty on 13 counts that included destruction of evidence.
The men now face the possibility of hanging. The sentences are expected to be handed down on Wednesday.
VK Anand, defence lawyer for Mukesh Singh, told reporters outside the courtroom: “My client was simply driving the bus. He confessed fairly that he was driving the bus but he did not know what went on inside.”
AP Singh, defence lawyer for Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma, called the convictions “political” and said he would appeal on behalf of both of them.
“We will now go to the High Court with our appeal,” he told reporters. “This is a political conviction.”
The parents of the student who died had tears in their eyes as the verdict was delivered. They sat just a few feet from the convicted men in a tiny courtroom jammed with lawyers, police and reporters.
