Delhi gang-rape-murder case: Suspect sentenced 3yrs in prison

NEW DELHI (AFP) – An Indian court
found a teenager guilty on Saturday of
taking part in the fatal gang-rape of a
student in New Delhi, a crime that
sparked revulsion and angry protests in
the country.
The juveniles’ court sentenced the
teenager to three years in a correctional
facility after handing down the first and
long-delayed verdict over the brutal
assault on the student on a moving bus
last December.
“He has been held guilty for rape and
murder and sentenced to three years
subject to review,” Anil Sharma, the chief
investigating officer in the case, told
reporters outside the court in the capital.
The teenager, who was 17 at the time of
the attack, was given the maximum
penalty after he was tried as a juvenile,
and the three years will include the time
he has already spent in custody.
The victim’s mother emerged from the
court in tears, saying “he got just three
years … from December onwards he has
been given three years”.
“He should get an adult sentence,” the
emotional mother, who cannot be named
for legal reasons, told reporters.
Her daughter, a 23-year-old
physiotherapy student, died of internal
injuries after being raped and assaulted
with an iron bar allegedly by six men on
the night of December 16. Her male
companion was also beaten up before
both were thrown from the bus.
The attack brought simmering anger
about endemic sex crime in India to the
boil, and sparked weeks of sometimes
violent street protests in the country.
The victim’s family had earlier called for
the teenager to be given the death
penalty, saying the juvenile justice
system, which seeks to reform rather than
punish, was too lenient.
The perceived leniency of the sentence is
likely to spark further anger in India
where the suspects, some of whom have
been beaten up in jail, are public hate
figures.
Outside the court, up to 20 protesters
demanded a harsher punishment,
screaming “Hang the juvenile too” and
“We want justice.”
The separate trial of the four adult
suspects in a fast-track court is hearing closing arguments and is expected to wrap up in the next few weeks, with the men facing a possible death sentence if convicted.
The fifth adult, the suspected ring leader,died in jail in an apparent suicide.
Outrage over the attack pushed
parliament to pass a new law toughening sentences for rapists, while there was a round of public soul-searching over the rising tide of violence against women.
The Supreme Court this month cleared the way for the principal magistrate, Geetanjli Goel, to deliver the verdict on the juvenile’s case.
It was delayed after a petition was lodged in the Supreme Court by an opposition politician for a review of the juvenile law,arguing suspects aged over 16 accused of serious offences should be tried in adult
courts.
The juvenile, one of six children, was
employed to clean the bus allegedly used for the attack and often slept rough or inside the vehicle, reports say.
He reportedly left his impoverished home in a village in northern Uttar Pradesh state at the age of 11 to live in Delhi,where he worked in a string of menial jobs until landing the job of cleaning the bus.
Children’s rights groups have called for public restraint over the verdict, saying the teenager needed to be given a chance of rehabilitation, adding that India’s child protection services had already failed him.
“In fact, every child coming in conflict
with the law is a reflection of the state and society failing that child,”
Vijaylakshmi Arora, director of policy and research at Child Relief and You, told AFP.