Quote:
The youngest of six men accused of the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old student on a Delhi bus last December has been sentenced to three years for her rape and murder.
Known by his alias Raju, the defendant was only 17 when he and five other men gang-raped and beat the 23-year-old student to death as she and her companion made their way home from a Delhi cinema in December, in a crime that sparked protests across India.
Had he been six months older he would have faced the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Instead, he was given the maximum sentence possible for a juvenile three years in a rehabilitation home where he will be given training for a new career upon his release.
As the verdict was relayed to a large crowd waiting outside Delhis Juvenile Court, the victims tearful mother was jostled and swept away by television cameramen, while women were crushed in the ensuing stampede. Protesters could be heard chanting Hang him.
The victims mother, who is planning to appeal the sentence, said in the aftermath: They may as well release him right now, it doesnt make any difference three years is not enough.
Speaking outside the court, the victims brother said: I just want justice. Real justice would be life or hanging.
The savagery of the attack on the student in December and her struggle to survive provoked outcry throughout India. After being beaten, raped and then thrown naked from a bus, left for dead, she was flown to a hospital in Singapore, eventually succumbing to her wounds 13 days after the attack.
While in hospital, she made a dying declaration to a magistrate identifying her killers, including Raju, the bus drivers 17 year old conductor.
According to police, he raped the victim twice, once while she was unconscious, and inflicted some of the internal injuries from which she later died.
Detectives said Raju was one of seven children of a sick, casual labourer and her mentally-ill husband and had left home at 12 to work in roadside cafés in Delhi. He later found work as a bus conductor.
On the night of the attack, he had been drinking heavily with his former boss Ram Singh after calling to collect his wages. Singh, one of the remaining accused, was found dead in his jail cell in March after an apparent suicide.
Following nationwide protests, the Indian government introduced new, tougher laws, and moves to fast-track rape trials to improve safety for women, but no changes were made to its age of criminal responsibility.
The trial of the four surviving accused in the case is expected to conclude in September.
There's no justice in this at all. Everyone knows I'm not one of the "hang them or flog them" brigade, but really 3 years for such a terrible crime when, according to the report, he seems to have been one of the worst of the people involved. 17 is hardly too young to know what you are doing. I can fully understand the anger at this joke sentence, but it seems like that was the maximum sentence available.