Delhi HC recites 'Kamayani' while upholding death sentence

The Delhi High Court, while upholding the death sentences awarded to four convicts of the Dec 16 gang rape case Thursday, depicted the status of women through lines of Hindi poet Jai Shankar Prasad in his epic "Kamayani".

A division bench of Justice Reva Khetrapal and Justice Pratibha Rani said: "While delicate physique of a woman has made her vulnerable, her place and role in the growth of society has made her command utmost respect. These characteristics of a woman have been depicted by great Hindi poet Jai Shankar Prasad in his epic, Kamayani."

The court mentioned the following lines in its order.

"Yeh aaj samajh to paayi hoon, Main durbalta mein nari hoon, Avyay ki sunder komalta, Lekar main sabse haari hoon. (This I understand today, I am a woman, in weakness, The delicate beauty of my limbs, because of them, I lose to all.)"

"Nari! tum kewal shraddha ho, Vishwas-rajat-nag-pal-tal mein, Piyush srot si baha karo, Jeevan ki sundar samtal mein. (Oh woman! You are honour personified, Under the silver mountain of faith, You flow like a river of ambrosia, On this beautiful earth.)"

The bench dismissed the appeals of the four convicts - Mukesh, 26, Akshay Thakur, 28, Pawan Gupta, 19, and Vinay Sharma, 20 - and confirmed the death sentence awarded to them by the trial court Sep 13 last year.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gang-raped and brutally assaulted by six men, including a juvenile, in a moving bus. The accused then threw her and her male companion out of the vehicle, stripped of clothing, to die by the roadside in the cold December night.

The woman died of grave intestinal injuries Dec 29, 2012 at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where she was airlifted for specialised treatment.

One of the six accused was found dead in a cell in Delhi's Tihar Jail. The juvenile involved in the crime was Aug 31, 2013 sent by the Juvenile Justice Board to a reform home for three years, the maximum term for a juvenile under the law.