Delhi gangrape: Denth sentence awarded to all  four convicts.

 The December 16 gang rape-cum-murder case Four convicts  was on Friday awarded death penalty by a Delhi court which said the gravity of the offense cannot be tolerated.

“Death to all,” Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna said while delivering the verdict in the case that had evoked nationwide outrage and led the government to bring in a stringent anti-rape law.

“Besides discussing others offences, I straightaway come to section 302 (murder) of IPC. This falls under inhuman nature of the convicts and the gravity of offence they committed cannot be tolerated. Death sentence is given to all the four convicts,” he said.

The offense committed by Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20) falls under the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment, the judge said.

The four were convicted by the court on September 10 for the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student.

“Court cannot turn a blind eye to such a gruesome act,” the judge said, while handing down the maximum punishment.

He said, “When crimes against women is rising on day-to-day basis, so, at this point in time court cannot keep its eye shut.”

“There should be exemplary punishment in view of the unparalleled brutality with which the victim was gang raped and murdered, as the case falls under the rarest of rare category. All be given death,” the court said while reading out a portion of the order.

“This is a time when a serious crime against a woman has come to the fore and now its judiciary’s responsibility to instill confidence among the women,” it said.

Besides murder, the four have been also convicted for offences including gangrape, unnatural offences, attempt to murder, dacoity, destruction of evidence, conspiracy, kidnapping or abducting in order to murder, while acquitting them of the charge of murder in dacoity.

Immediately after pronouncement of sentence, the victim’s mother expressed satisfaction over the verdict.

“’Halak mein saans atki thi, jo ab bahar nikli hai. Mein dhanywaad karti hu desh ke logon ka aur media ka’ (We were waiting with bated breath, now we are relieved. I thank the people of my country and the media),” she said.

Besides her, the victim’s father and two brothers were also present in the jam-packed courtroom when the sentence was pronounced.

Hearing that he will face the gallows, Vinay started crying in court while the other three convicts -- Mukesh, Pawan, Akshay -- started shouting for pardon, with one of the defense lawyers A.P. Singh also joins them in seeking mercy.

Advocate V K Anand, who appeared for Mukesh, said he has regard for the verdict and he will file an appeal in the Delhi High Court.

Special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan said, “I have done my job and we (prosecution) are happy with the verdict.”

Soon after the verdict was delivered, people waiting outside the courtroom started clapping.

Parents of the 23-year-old gang rape victim on Friday expressed happiness over a court ordering the four convicts to the gallows for the brutal attack, saying their daughter has finally got justice.

“We are happy with the verdict. Our daughter has finally got justice. I would like to thank all those who supported us,” the girl’s mother said at the Saket court complex, with her husband by her side.

A Delhi court has awarded the four convicts death penalty for the brutal assault on the 23 year-old-girl on a moving bus on December 16, 2012, a case that had triggered nationwide outrage and massive protests forcing the government to bring stringent anti-rape laws.

The father of the girl also expressed satisfaction over the verdict. “I would like to thank all those who stood by us. I am happy,” he said, minutes after the fast-track court pronounced the verdict in the case.

The parents of the girl have been demanding death sentence for the convicts.

The court said the offense committed by Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20) falls under the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment.

The parents of the girl were present in the courtroom when the court pronounced the verdict.

The mother of the girl said though justice has been done to her daughter, the fight was not yet over. “Our fight is not over. We will always stand with the people in their fight against crimes against women.”

One of the accused Ram Singh was found hanging in his prison cell in high-security Tihar jail on March 12 while the juvenile involved in the crime was given three year term by the Juvenile Justice Board 10 days ago.

One of the accused—Ram Singh, the driver of the bus in which the gruesome act took place and one of the main instigators of the crime— was on March 12 found hanging in his prison cell in Delhi's Tihar jail.

The other four are — 

Mukesh Singh

29-year-old Mukesh is the younger brother of Ram Singh. They had to Delhi from Rajasthan in search of livelihood. He often worked alongwith his brother on the bus and did odd jobs. He is unmarried and reports suggested that he vehemently denied the charges throughout the proceedings.

Vinay Sharma

Unlike the others, who are school dropouts, 20-year-old Vinay worked as a help at a gym in the locality and wished to appear for an entrance test of Indian Air Force. While in jail he was assaulted in the jail and suffered a fractured left hand.

Pawan Gupta

19-year-old Pawan Gupta sold fruits for a living but worked as labourer on roads and construction sites. He was known as a friend of Ram Singh and was arrested from the Ram Das Camp area, where he lived with his cousin, the morning after the rape incident.

Akshay Thakur

The 28-year-old resident of Bihar's Aurangabad is married and has a two-year-old son. He had fled from Delhi on December 17, but was arrested from his father-in-law's village in Bihar. He too worked as a helper with Ram Singh and at a brick kiln and local liquor factory.

Those in his village said they were angry over the heinous deed, but also felt bad looking at his innocent wife and two-year-old son whose long and insecure journey in life will be riddled with hardships.

The 'juvenile'

As he was only 17-year-old at the time of the attack, the minor was not named for legal reasons and was sentenced to three years in a correctional facility.

He had run away from his poverty-stricken home in Uttar Pradesh at the age of 11 and while in Delhi cleaned Ram Singh's bus and slept inside the vehicle.

His mother told the police that he was the eldest of her six children and that she had no contact with him during his time in the capital where he had no fixed job or address and often slept rough.