(Corrects to make clear victim did not die on Dec. 16)
By Suchitra Mohanty
NEW DELHI, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Indian prosecutors demanded
on Wednesday the death penalty for four men convicted of raping
and murdering a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist, who was
attacked on a bus in New Delhi last December.
Public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan said the “extreme
brutality” of the crime justified the maximum penalty of
hanging. The men had used a metal rod and their hands to pull
the woman’s organs from her body after raping her, the
prosecution said. Her injuries were so severe that she died in
hospital two weeks after the attack.
Judge Yogesh Khanna, who found the four guilty of
“cold-blooded” murder on Tuesday, was hearing arguments from the
prosecution and defence on sentencing. The minimum sentence the
men could receive is life in prison.
In his 240-page judgment, Khanna found bus cleaner Akshay
Kumar Singh, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, fruit-seller Pawan
Gupta, and unemployed Mukesh Singh guilty of acting with
premeditation when they abducted and raped the young woman on
Dec. 16.
The woman may not be named for legal reasons.
All four of the men denied the charges.
Three of the men said they were never on the bus, and
another said he was driving the bus and knew nothing of the
crime. The prosecution said DNA evidence and bite marks on the
woman’s body placed the men at the scene.
Defence lawyer A.P. Singh, who represents Sharma and Kumar
Singh, said in pleading for leniency he would argue that his
clients were both first-time offenders. Sharma has a wife and
child and an ailing mother, he will also argue.
Sadashiv Gupta, the defence lawyer for Gupta, said there was
only circumstantial evidence tying his 19-year-old client to the
crime. He too, did not have a criminal record, the lawyer said.
Amid the public clamour outside the court for the four men
to be hanged for a crime that shook India, some human rights
groups and lawyers argue that putting the men in prison for the
rest of their lives is a harsher punishment.
The case has resonated with thousands of urban Indians who
took to the streets in fury after the attack. The victim became
a symbol of the daily dangers women face in a country where a
rape is reported on average every 21 minutes and acid attacks
and incidents of molestation are common.
It is not clear whether Khanna will deliver his ruling on
Wednesday or on a later date. If he does give the death penalty,
India’s high court will have to confirm the sentences.
(Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani; Writing by Ross
Colvin; Editing by Robert Birsel)
