Salient points of Delhi gang-rape case judgment

Salient points of the judgment awarding the death penalty to the four convicts in the Dec 16, 2012 gang-rape case:

* Gruesome crimes against women have become rampant and courts cannot turn a blind eye to the need to send a strong deterrent message to the perpetrators of such crimes.

* The increasing trend of crimes against women can be arrested only once the society realises that there will be no tolerance for any form of deviance against women.

* In extreme cases of brutality such as the present one the criminal justice system must instil confidence in the minds of people, especially women.

* The crime of such nature against a helpless women, per se, requires exemplary punishment.

* The gravity of the incident depicts the hair raising beastly and unparalleled behaviour.

* The subjecting of the woman to inhuman acts of torture before her death had not only shocked the collective conscience but calls for the withdrawal of the protective arm of the community around the convicts.

* This ghastly act of the convicts definitely fits this case in the bracket of rarest of rare cases.

* The court has to look into the factors like the society's abhorrence, extreme indignation and antipathy to certain types of cases, like the case in hand - of gang rape with brutal murder of a helpless woman.

* Convicts' unprovoked crime demonstrated exceptional depravity of mind. Various bite marks were observed on her body parts, (these) show their beastly behaviour.