New Delhi: Four convicts in the December 16 gangrape-cum-murder case were today awarded death penalty by a Delhi court which said the gravity of the offence cannot be tolerated.
"Death to all," Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna said while delivering the verdict in the case that had evoked nationwide outrage and led the government to bring in a stringent anti-rape law.
"Besides discussing others offences, I straightaway come to section 302 (murder) of IPC. This falls under inhuman nature of the convicts and the gravity of offence they committed cannot be tolerated. Death sentence is given to all the four convicts," he said.
The offence committed by Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20) falls under the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment, the judge said.
"Court cannot turn a blind eye to such a gruesome act," the judge said, while handing down the maximum punishment. He said, "When crime against women is rising on day-to-day basis, so, at this point in time court cannot keep its eye shut."
"There should be exemplary punishment in view of the unparallelled brutality with which the victim was gangraped and murdered, as the case falls under the rarest of rare category. All be given death," the court said while reading out a portion of the order.
"This is a time when serious crime against a woman has come to the fore and now its judiciary's responsibility to instill confidence among the women," it said.
The four were convicted by the court on September 10 for the gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student.
Besides murder, the four have been also convicted for offences including gangrape, unnatural offences, attempt to murder, dacoity, destruction of evidence, conspiracy, kidnapping or abducting in order to murder, while acquitting them of the charge of murder in dacoity.
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