This Article is From Aug 31, 2013

Delhi gang-rape: crime to be a girl in India, says braveheart's father

The mother of the physiotherapy intern who died after being gang-raped on a moving bus in Delhi in December said today's verdict is unacceptable to them.

New Delhi: The father of the student who was fatally gang-raped on a moving bus in Delhi today said, "It is a crime to be born a girl in this country."

Like his wife, he broke down after a juvenile court found one of the six accused guilty of rape and murder.

Because he was 17 when he committed the crime, he has been sentenced to three years in a reform home, but the judge knocked off eight months for the time he has already spent in a juvenile centre since his arrest.

The parents of the physiotherapy intern who died said the juvenile should be hanged.

"Only three years? This is unacceptable. They may as well acquit him now," said her mother.

The brutal assault on their daughter who was violated with an iron rod incensed the country, which held its breath while she fought for two weeks for her life, first in Delhi and then in Singapore where she was airlifted by the government.

Street protests demanded tougher anti-rape laws which were introduced a few months ago by the government.

The juvenile was also acquitted of attempting to murder the girl's male friend who was with her and had been attacked by the gang before the couple was thrown naked onto the road.

One of the five others arrested killed himself in jail in March. The four others are being tried by a special fast-track court expected to deliver its verdict in mid-September.

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