Crime of such nature requires exemplary punishment: Court

After almost nine months day-to-day trial, Delhi’s fast track court on Friday awarded death penalty to the four convicts in the December 16 gang rape and murder case and said it was “hair-raising” “unparalled behavior” shown towards the 23-year-old paramedical student who died in a hospital Singapore last year.

Terming it as rarest of rare case, additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna said, “These are times when gruesome crimes against women have become rampant and courts cannot turn a blind eye to the need to send a strong deterrent message to the perpetrators of such crimes. The increasing trend of crimes against women can be arrested only once the society realize that there will be no tolerance from any form of deviance against women and more so in extreme cases of brutality such as the present one and hence the criminal justice system must instill confidence in the minds of people especially the women.”

Taking long breath minutes after the verdict, girl’s mother told dna, “Today I can sleep with peace. I am thankful to the people of India and the police authorities who fought for my daughter. Justice is finally done to my daughter. May this verdict act as a deterrent to society at large.”

Delivering his 20-page order in a packed courtroom with lawyers and media persons, the judge noted that the ghastly acts of Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20) requires withdrawal of the protective arm of the community from around them.

Noting that the aggravating circumstances had overcome mitigating circumstances the judge said, “The crime of such nature against a helpless woman, per se, require exemplary punishment. I may leave here while saying the gravity of the incident depicts the hair-raising beastly and unparalleled behaviour. Subjecting of the prosecutrix to inhuman acts of torture before her death had not only shocked the collective conscience but calls for withdrawal of the protective arm of the community from around the convicts. This ghastly act of the convicts definitely fits this case in the bracket of rarest of rare cases.”

Minutes after the the judgment, Vinay was seen crying and pleading Mujhe maaf kar do (please forgive me ).

The fast track court has now sent the death penalty reference to the Delhi high court for confirmation.

“Convicts in pursuance of their conspiracy lured the victims into the bus, brutally gangraped the prosecutrix, inflicted inhuman torture and threw the defenceless victims out of the moving bus in naked condition, profusely bleeding in a cold winter night; their unprovoked crime demonstrated exceptional depravity of mind.

Her intestines were so severely damaged and the suffering inflicted on the prosecutrix was unparalleled. The brutality caused to her internal organs is extreme as is evident from the medical evidence on record and hence the act of convicts call for extreme penalty,” it said.

While applying the test of rarest of rare, the court said, “The facts show that entire intestine of the prosecutrix was perforated, splayed and cut open due to repeated insertions of rods and hands.

“The convicts, in the most barbaric manner, pulled out her internal organs with their bare hands as well as by the rods and caused her irreparable injuries, thus exhibiting extreme mental perversion not worthy of human condonation. It rather shows the beastly behaviour of convicts.

On the night of December 16 last year, Ram Singh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and a juvenile-had gangraped the paramedic student in a moving bus in South Delhi after luring her and her 28-year-old male friend, who was also assaulted, on board the vehicle, which was later found to be plying illegally on the national capital’s roads.