Delhi gang-rape: the four convicts will be sentenced on Friday
"I am innocent! I am innocent!" shouted one of the four men found guilty of the gang-rape and murder of a young student on a moving bus in Delhi as the group arrived at court this morning.
On Friday, the judge will announce whether they are sentenced to life in prison or death by hanging, as demanded by the prosecution, which told the judge, "they showed no mercy even when she begged for it." (
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The barbarous attack committed in December tore into India, introducing street protests, new laws for sex offences, and a national debate on the safety of women.
"They have shown no remorse," said the mother of the girl who died, insisting that the convicts must hang. "She wanted them to be set on fire," she said. (
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In his verdict yesterday delivered after a nine-month trial, Judge Yogesh Khanna said the men had murdered "a helpless victim."
Defence lawyers today argued for leniency. "You can't give capital punishment on demand," said one, appearing to refer to the public clamour for the men to be hanged.
Bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta, and unemployed Mukesh Singh lured the woman and a male friend onto the off-duty school bus on the night of December 16 as the pair returned home from watching a movie at a mall.
After gang-raping her for 45 minutes, they threw the couple, naked and semi-conscious, on the road. She died in a Singapore hospital two weeks later.
Six men were arrested. One killed himself in his prison cell in March. Another, who was 17 at the time of the attack was sentenced by a juvenile court last month to three years in a reform home.