Dastardly act deserved death sentence: Legal experts

Welcoming the death penalty for all the four accused in the December 16 gang-rape case in Delhi, the legal eagles of Mumbai said that the dastardly act deserved only death sentence.

They hoped that the sentence be executed expeditiously so that a complete sense of justice prevails. Justice should not only be done, but should also be seen to have been done.

Noted criminal lawyer Majeed Memon said the gravity of the offence called for a death sentence. “The sessions court (in Delhi) rightly came to the conclusion that the aggravating factors had outweighed the mitigating circumstances,” Memon said.

However, Memon said that the complete sense of justice will prevail when the actual execution of the accused takes place. “Unless actual execution of these four takes place promptly, the message to be sent to the rapists will be lost,” he added.

Slamming the defence counsel, Memon said, “The defence counsel was heard saying that the judge was under pressure and the home minister had influenced the sentence. This is ridiculous and has no element of truth.”

Advocate and former chairperson of National Commission for Women Poornima Advani said justice had prevailed and hopefully the sentence would act as a deterrent for others who think of committing such heinous offence. “Hopefully, the verdict will bring a new dawn of safety and freedom for India’s woman,” said Advani. Senior counsel Amit Desai said the incident in which a 23-year-old student was raped on a moving bus, assaulted with a metal rod that led to grave internal injuries and then dumped on the road to die fits in the “rarest of rare” case category and called for a death sentence.

Counsel Mahesh Jethmalani echoed the same views saying “I always have mixed feeling when a death sentence is awarded. But seeing the crime and cruelty towards the victim in this case, the accused deserved nothing but death sentence.”