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LequteMan
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A fast-track court in the Indian capital has found four men guilty in last year’s December 16 brutal gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old student that rocked the country and sparked massive street demonstrations, reports Voice of America.
The woman, called “Nirbhaya” or "fearless" by the Indian public and media, was returning home from a movie with a male friend in New Delhi when they accepted a ride on a private bus.
She was repeatedly raped and tortured with an iron rod and her friend was badly beaten. Both were thrown off the bus. She died of severe internal injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.
On Tuesday, nearly nine months after her death, four of the six (Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh) accused in the young woman’s gang rape and murder were found guilty. They have repeatedly denied any wrong doing and their lawyer says they will appeal the verdict.
A fifth suspect, Ram Singh, was found hanging in his high-security jail cell in March. And the sixth accused, who was a juvenile at the time of the attack, was sentenced to three years last month.
The four men found guilty Tuesday are expected to be sentenced as early as Wednesday. They all face the death penalty.
The woman’s family said justice will only be done when the men receive the death penalty for their crime. Her father told Indian media that “if the men are hanged, then others will get the message and not commit such crimes. They will think twice about it.”
