Dec. 16 gang-rape case: RK Singh demands death penalty

Former Home Secretary RK Singh on Tuesday welcomed the verdict of a Delhi Court that held all the remaining four accused guilty of gang-rape and murder of 23-year-old woman on December 16 -17, and demanded death penalty for the four convicted of such a heinous crime.

"We are waiting for the quantum of punishment tomorrow. Death penalty must be given for such a heinous crime. I also feel age of the juvenile should be revised as situation now is very different. Boys are getting mature very fast. Age of juvenile should be brought down to 14 or 15 years," he said.

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told media in Mumbai that a death sentence was assured, given that the law had been strengthened.

"We have strengthened the law. Death penalty is assured in this case", he said.

A fast-track court in Delhi on Tuesday pronounced all the remaining four accused guilty for the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012.

The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow following arguments presented by both the prosecution and the defence.

Of the total six accused, the prime conspirator - Ram Singh - had killed himself in Tihar Jail in March this year, while a minor accused was recently sentenced to serve three years in a special home by the Juvenile Justice Board.

The fast-track held the four remaining accused - Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan and Mukesh - guilty of being involved in the gang-rape and murder of the 23-year-old woman.

The charges in the instant case were framed on February 2 during which the court also invoked Section 366 of the Indian penal Code (IPC) against them for abducting the girl with intention of committing "illicit intercourse".

It had in its order described the juvenile as an associate of the adult accused, who committed gang rape in furtherance of the conspiracy and "common intention".

The four have been tried for offences under section 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (2)(g) (gangrape), 377 (unnatural offences), 395 (dacoity), 396 (murder in dacoity), 201 (destruction of evidence), 120-B (conspiracy), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 365 ( kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), and 412 (dishonestly receiving property stolen in the commission of a dacoity) of the IPC.

The 23-year-old paramedical student was raped, beaten and tortured by the six men on a moving bus on the outskirts of outer Delhi. The victim died of internal injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks later.