NEW DELHI, Sept 10 – A fast track court in the Indian capital on Tuesday found all four living adult suspects of the horrific gang rape in Delhi last December guilty of all 14 charges filed against them, including gang rape, murder and destruction of evidence, said court officials.
Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna found the four guilty in the case when announcing the judgment in front of the four brought to court, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
The convicted — Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur — could face maximum punishment of death penalty, which would be announced Wednesday by the court.
The verdict came one week after a juvenile board sentenced a minor to three years in a correctional home, while the sixth and major suspect of the case, Ram Singh, has hanged himself in jail.
The gang rape, which saw a 23-year-old medical student brutally raped, battered on a moving bus in Delhi in December last year, triggered nationwide protests and led to the government to enact a stringent anti-rape law.
The victim, who has been dubbed as braveheart by the Indian media as her name was not disclosed according to law, later died at a hospital in Singapore, where she was shifted to after her condition worsened at a government hospital in the national capital.
Meanwhile, the defence counsel of the accused said they would appeal to a higher court after the announcement of verdict on Wednesday.
However, calls remain very strong across the country for giving death to the four in order to deter the rampant violence against women in India, especially in rural areas where women are being violated on a daily basis.
– BERNAMA
