Dec 16 incident "definitely" is rarest of rare, says court

The ghastly act of the convicts in the December 16 gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old girl "definitely fits in the bracket of rarest of rare" case, the Delhi court today said while sending the four convicts to the gallows.
"...The gravity of the incident depicts the hair-raising beastly and unparalleled behaviour. The subjecting of the victim 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," Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna said while awarding death penalty to Mukesh, Akshay, Vinay and Pawan.

Observing that the court has to look into the factors like "society's abhorrence, extreme indignation and antipathy to certain types of cases", like the present case, the court said "crime of such nature against a helpless woman, per se, require exemplary punishment."
He also said the criminal justice system must instill confidence in the minds of people, especially the women.
"The facts show that the entire intestine of the victim was perforated, sprayed and cut open due to repeated insertions of rods and hands. The convicts, in the most barbaric manner, pulled out her internal organs with their bare hands as well as by the rods and caused her irreparable injuries, thus exhibiting extreme mental perversion not worthy of human condonation," the court said.

The judge said "the unprovoked crime demonstrated exceptional depravity of mind" of the convicts as they lured the girl and her male friend into the bus, brutally gang raped her, inflicted inhuman torture and threw the defenceless victims out of the moving bus in naked condition, profusely bleeding in a cold winter night.