Judge Sentences Delhi Rapists to Die for ‘Gruesome Crime’
All four Indian men convicted of raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi were sentenced to death on Friday, a decision the judge said sent a message to society that there can be no tolerance for such a savage crime.
Cheers went up from a crowd outside the Delhi court when lawyers rushed out to announce the sentence handed down for last December’s assault, which triggered furious protest across India and rare national debate about violence against women.
“This has shocked the collective conscience of society,” Judge Yogesh Khanna said, condemning the men to death by hanging.
“In these times when crime against women is on the rise, courts cannot turn a blind eye towards such gruesome crime. There cannot be any tolerance … This crime in every way falls within the rarest of rare category warranting a death sentence.”
The sentencing was one of the biggest tests in years of India’s paradoxical attitude towards the death penalty.
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