Post date: Sep 13, 2013 1:19:53 PM
Parents of the Delhi gang rape victim welcome the decision of the judge who sentenced the man convicted of raping and murdering their daughter to death but say the juvenile defendant sentenced to three years detention, the maximum allowed under juvenile law, should face harsher puinishement.
NEW DELHI, INDIA (SEPTEMBER 13, 2013) (ANI) - Parents of the Delhi gang rape victim on Friday (September 13) expressed satisfaction with the court's decision to hang all four men convicted of raping and murdering their 23-year-old daughter and said they would get peace after seeing the killers hang.
The four men were found guilty this week of luring the trainee physiotherapist onto a bus on December 16, raping and torturing her with a metal bar and then throwing her naked and bleeding onto the road. She died two weeks later.
"Yes, this fight will go on till the day they (four convicted men) are hanged. That is the day we will get final justice and peace of mind, when they are hanged," said mother of the victim.One of the four men sentenced to death by hanging, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, was dragged out of the court crying.
Father of the murdered girl, sitting inside his small flat in New Delhi, surrounded by his family members, said that he would eagerly wait for the day the four men are actually hanged.
"We will be completely satisfied when we will see them hanging by their neck. But right now we are satisfied because they have been given the death penalty, so now there is no doubt that they will be hanged, but it will take some and I will wait for that day," he said.
The victim became a symbol of the dangers women face in a country where a rape is reported on average every 21 minutes and acid attacks and cases of molestation are common.
The four men were sentenced to death despite their lawyers' pleas to ignore popular and political pressure for a penalty handed down in only the "rarest of rare" cases.
The sentencing capped a seven-month trial, often held behind closed doors, that was punctuated dramatically by a fifth defendant hanging himself in his jail cell.
A sixth, who was under 18 at the time of the attack, was earlier sentenced to three years detention, the maximum allowed under juvenile law.
The relatively lax punishment for the teenager rankled the victim's parents.
"We are happy with the court's decision because our daughter has now got justice but somewhere in our heart we are also pained to see that the juvenile has escaped with a lesser sentence," said the mother.
Moments after the court sentenced the four convicted men, protests erupted outside the court demanding a similar death sentence for the teenager who was also involved in the crime but has been awarded a three-year jail term.
Holding banners, placards and wearing bandanas protesters vented their anger, demanding death sentence for the juvenile, who in the popular view has been treated leniently.
"The enormity of his crime does not allow him to be treated as a juvenile and we would want that, even though he is a juvenile, but his crime is so severe and barbaric, he should be given the same punishment," echoed victim's father.
The Delhi case led to the introduction of tougher rape laws in March, and for the first time open conversation about gender crime in television debates, social media and even Bollywood.
Still, sex crimes remain commonplace in India, and social commentators say patriarchal attitudes towards women have not been diluted by more than a decade of rapid economic growth.