Wonders they say shall never end. A teenager who was part of the Six evil men who raped a 23-year-old girl (who later died of injuries sustained) in India last year has been sentenced to just 3-years imprisonment.
Read more after the cut....................
A teenager convicted for the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in Delhi has been jailed for just three years.
The defendant, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was given the maximum sentence possible under Indian law.
But despite having since turned 18, the attacker will not be publicly named.
The crime, which left the victim with such extensive internal injuries that she died two weeks later, sparked widespread protests across the country and led to reforms of India's antiquated sexual violence laws.
The victim's family called for the teenager to be tried as an adult, accusing him of being the most violent of the attackers.
'He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not. He should be punished for what he did to my daughter,' said the mother of the victim, said soon after the verdict was announced.
'You may as well set the juvenile free, if the sentence is only three years for heinous offences like rape and murder,' she added tearfully.
The mother also said she would appeal against the verdict in a higher court.
'I am not happy with this judgment. At least in this case, the juvenile should have been sentenced to life,' the victim's brother told Reuters news agency.
The government, facing immense public pressure, had promised swift justice in the case.
The convicted defendant was one of six people accused of tricking a 23-year-old medical student and her male companion into boarding an off-duty bus December 16 after they had seen an afternoon showing of 'Life of Pi' at a shopping mall.
Police say the men raped the woman and used a metal bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her. They also beat her male companion. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital.
Four of the other defendants are being tried in a special fast-track court in New Delhi and face the death penalty. The sixth accused was found dead in his jail cell in March. The court is expected to hand down the rest of the verdicts next month.
The convicted defendant was tried as a minor on charges including murder and rape. The time he spent in a juvenile home since he was arrested in December will count as part of his three-year sentence.
The attack set off furious protests across India about the treatment of women in the country where police say a rape is reported every 20 minutes.
A government panel set to suggest reforms to sexual assault laws rejected calls to lower the age at which people can be tried as adults from 18 to 16.
On July 17, India's top court also refused to reduce the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 years. However, it later agreed to hear a new petition seeking to take the 'mental and intellectual maturity' of the defendant into account and not just age.
Four of the teenager's co-accused are still on trial and face the death penalty if convicted. Closing arguments began on August 22 and verdicts are expected within the next fortnight. A fifth accused, the alleged ring-leader, killed himself in his jail cell in March.
No comments:
Post a Comment