India Court Sentences Four to Death in Delhi Rape Case

By PREETIKA RANA, VIBHUTI AGARWAL and TRIPTI LAHIR, INDIA NEWS, Updated September 13, 2013, 10:42 a.m. ET, Source

NEW DELHI—An Indian judge sentenced four men to death for the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old student last year, sending a stern message in a case that transfixed India as the country struggles to curb widespread violence against women.

Three days after finding the men guilty of murder, rape, kidnapping and other charges, Judge Yogesh Khanna said they should be hanged for their crimes, which he said had "shocked the collective conscience" of India.

"In these times when crime against women is on the rise, courts cannot turn a blind eye towards such gruesome crime," Judge Khanna said. "There cannot be any tolerance."

An Indian judge sentenced four men to death for the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student last year, sending a stern message in a case that transfixed India. WSJ’s Tripti Lahiri reports. Photo: Getty Images

 

A New Delhi court was set to rule on the four men accused of the December gang rape of a 23-year-old woman. The Wall Street Journal spoke with her parents about why their call for the death penalty isn’t about revenge.

 

When the sentence was announced, the defendants—Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Kumar Singh—began to cry. Mr. Sharma collapsed and was carried away by police.

Police officers and others crowded outside applauded and cheered as word of the sentence spread.

A.P. Singh, who represents two of the accused men, shouted at the judge, saying: "This is highly unfair. You have acted under political pressure." Mr. Singh and other defense attorneys said they would appeal. The men denied the charges against them during the trial.

The December attack, in which the woman was sexually assaulted with a metal bar and repeatedly raped while on board a bus, jolted India, touching off demonstrations across the country and prompting soul-searching about women's rights in the world's largest democracy.

The brutality of the crime—the woman was dumped, naked and bloody, by the side of the road and later died of her injuries—led to legal changes from the criminalization of stalking and voyeurism to stiffened penalties for rape, making death the punishment in extreme cases.

"Let's hope today's judgment will instill confidence in society," said Dayan Krishnan, the lead public prosecutor in the case.

In addition to the four men sentenced Friday, a fifth adult defendant in the case was found dead in his jail cell in March. Authorities said he committed suicide. His family alleges he was killed. An investigation is ongoing. A teenage defendant was sentenced to three years in a reformatory, the maximum penalty allowed under youthful offender laws, by a juvenile court.

"It is a historic decision," said the victim's father. "When people took to the streets and stood by us, we became hopeful. Today's punishment will bring peace to our minds and to the whole country."

The family of the victim, who under Indian law and judicial rulings in the case cannot be publicly named, had pressed for the death penalty, a call echoed by politicians and many protesters who have said the courts need to send a message that such crimes won't be tolerated.

Defendant Mukesh Singh, who told the court that he was driving the bus but didn't realize an attack was taking place in the passenger compartment, on Friday told The Wall Street Journal that he wanted to tell the victim's family that he had not hurt their daughter.

"Yes, I was to blame for driving the bus," he said, through his lawyer. "Please forgive me if you can."

Past Indian Supreme Court rulings have said the death penalty is warranted for crimes committed in such "an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting or dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the community."

At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Krishnan, the prosecutor, said that "the sentence which is appropriate is nothing short of death." He argued that "there can be nothing more diabolical" than the way the victim in the case was "tortured."

 

Vivek Sharma, a lawyer for Mr. Gupta, argued that life imprisonment should be the sentence. "The court must bear in mind that life imprisonment is the rule and the death sentence is the exception," he said.

According to Judge Khanna's judgment, the men raped the woman one by one. When she could no longer resist, they repeatedly assaulted her with a metal rod. Describing 18 wounds to the woman's internal organs, the judge said the men intended not only to cause hurt but specifically to cause death.

As details of the crime became public in December soon after the attack, angry crowds began gathering in the heart of the city, waving placards emblazoned with slogans like "hang the rapists" alongside drawings of nooses.

"Hang them in public," said Achuram, a 39-year-old cobbler in New Delhi who goes by one name. Mr. Achuram, a father to two daughters, said the death penalty would serve as a deterrent. "India needs to send out a strong message. We need to tell the world that we will not tolerate abuse against our mothers and daughters."

"I don't think this will make cities safer or reduce rapes. This is all just the state trying to show it is strong. Our country has a lynch mob mentality," said Seema Misra, a women's rights lawyer. "I'm not for the death penalty. I don't think it has any deterrent effect. It's revenge."

After a lull in executions since 2004, India has carried out two executions since November: the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, convicted of terror charges in a 2008 attack on Mumbai that killed more than 160 people, and Afzal Guru, convicted of plotting a 2001 attack on Parliament.

Write to Preetika Rana at preetika.rana@wsj.com, Vibhuti Agarwal at vibhuti.agarwal@wsj.com and Tripti Lahiri at tripti.lahiri@wsj.com