The gang rapists who brutally raped and murdered a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi were sentenced to death on Friday.
In a courtroom of Saket court, Judge Yogesh Khanna’s voice rang the place as he delivered the death sentence. Khanna said in the statement, “These are the times when gruesome crimes against women are on the rise 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 realizes that there will be no tolerance from any form of deviance against women,” and sentenced the 4 gang rapists—Akshay Kumar Singh alias Thakur, Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, and Pawan Gupta alias Kaalu—to death.
Once of the rapists wailed after the final sentence and others broke down in tears. The rapists’ defense attorney A.P. Singh yelled at judge Khanna after the deliverance, “This is not the victory of truth! But it is the defeat of justice!” Singh then said in an interview, “The judge has given the death sentence under political pressure. The punishment has been given at the government’s insistence.”
His claim may be true since the rape and murder victim, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in New Delhi, was from a “respectable” family. In India, normally rape victims are the ones who take the blame because women are considered lower in social dynamics and get exiled from their communities. So this verdict that may be the expected result to such crimes in other countries was perceived unusual by the rapists’ lawyer, Singh.
The rape and murder victim’s family let out a sigh of relief after finding justice has been served. The victim’s father said after the proceedings, “I am very happy our girl has got justice.”
Female activists in India are hopeful that this case can be an epiphany for India to perceive women as same human beings as men.
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