Delhi gang-rape verdict sent a message of deterrence to criminals: Tejinder Luthra

Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police, Tejinder Luthra, on Friday welcomed the fast track court verdict to award the death penalty for all four accused the December 16 gang-rape case, and said this landmark judgment has sent a message of deterrence to criminals.

"This verdict has sent a message of deterrence to criminals and it has also sent a greater relief for the common man in the whole justice system," Luthra said.

"It's a subject of satisfaction for our investigating team," he added.

While delivering his verdict in a fast track court here on Friday, Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna said the December 16 gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus last year had shaken the nation's conscience and one could not turn a blind eye to a crime of such a heinous nature.

He termed the crime as falling in the rarest of rare category, while awarding all of the four accused the death sentence.

The judge, who had on Wednesday fixed September 13 as the date for pronouncing the quantum of sentence, said such a case can't be ignored at a time when crimes against women are on the rise.

The judge also said society has no tolerance for such crimes.

Defence lawyer A.P. Singh, however, termed the verdict a big disappointment, and alleged that the court acted under influence.

"The judgement has been done on the directions of the government," Singh claimed.

"The judge sentenced all the four without looking at the evidence," he added.

A fast-track court, which had earlier on Tuesday convicted the four by relying on the victim's dying declaration and forensic evidence, described the crime as 'premeditated' and 'brutal' act.

While pronouncing the order, the judge said the accused were found guilty of gang rape, unnatural offences, destruction of evidence and 'for committing the murder of the helpless victim'.

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.