- Title: INDIA: Gang rape convicted leave prison for court, await sentence
- Date: 11th September 2013
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (SEPTEMBER11, 2013) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC) EXTERIOR OF THE TIHAR JAIL WHERE THE FOUR CONVICTED IN THE DELHI GANG RAPE AND MURDER CASE ARE LODGED A WALL READING IN HINDI, 'GATE NUMBER 3' A POLICE VAN CARRYING THE CONVICTED DEPARTING FROM THE JAIL PREMISES AND GOING TO THE COURT THE BUS PLYING ON THE ROAD TRAFFIC MOVING ON THE ROAD
- Embargoed: 26th September 2013 21:19
- Keywords:
- Location: India
- Country: India
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA57CXSLJNG93AACUDBTRFCF14T
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: The four men convicted in the Delhi gang rape and murder case departed from the Tihar jail for an Indian court that is set to hand down their sentences on Wednesday (September 11) in a crime that shook India and forced the country to confront sexual violence in a society undergoing wrenching change.
Four men were convicted on Tuesday (September 10) of the "cold-blooded" murder of a woman, who was raped and tortured on a bus in New Delhi.
The four - a bus cleaner, gym instructor, fruit seller and an unemployed man - face hanging, the maximum penalty for murder. The trial judge will hear prosecution and defence arguments on sentencing on Wednesday, when he could deliver his ruling.
The minimum sentence the men could get is life imprisonment.
The presiding judge of the case said he had relied in part on the dying declaration of the victim in finding the men guilty.
As he read the verdict, the mother of the victim sat with tears in her eyes, just a few feet from the four men who stood flanked by policemen against a wall in the court.
The victim, who came from a lower-middle class family and worked in a call centre while she studied, cannot be named for legal reasons, but Indian media have dubbed her "Nirbhaya", a Hindi word meaning fearless.
She became a symbol of the daily dangers women face in a country where a rape is reported on average every 21 minutes and acid attacks and incidents of molestation are common.
The four culprits lured the woman and a male friend onto the bus as the pair returned home from watching a movie at a shopping mall.
As the bus drove through the streets of the capital, the men repeatedly raped and tortured the victim with a metal bar before dumping her and her friend, naked and semi-conscious, on the road. She died in a Singapore hospital two weeks later of internal injuries.
In his 240-page judgement, the presiding judge, Yogesh Khanna, slammed the "inconsistent" defence. Three of the men said they were never on the bus, and another said he was driving and knew nothing of the crime, despite DNA evidence and bite marks on the women's body that placed them at the scene. - Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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