Court convicts four men over gang rape in India
An Indian court has convicted four men over the gang rape of a woman on a bus in New Delhi last December.
Sentences for the men, who face the possibility of hanging, are expected to be handed down tomorrow.
The incident occurred on a bus in New Dehli last December.
The trial has lasted seven months and saw a fifth accused man take his life in prison.
The brutal attack set off waves of protest in India, giving voice to years of anger over the treatment of women and a silent epidemic of sexual harassment and rape.
The men, along with another suspect who hanged himself in prison and a juvenile who was convicted in August, were riding through the city on an off-duty bus in December when they tricked the 23-year-old woman and a male friend into boarding.
They beat the woman’s friend into submission, then held her down and repeatedly raped her. They also penetrated her repeatedly with an iron rod, causing severe internal injuries that led to her death two weeks later. As a rape victim, the woman cannot be identified under Indian law.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the courtroom today, calling the case a wake-up call for India and demanding the death penalty for the men.
“Every girl at any age experiences this – harassment or rape. We don’t feel safe,” said law school graduate Rapia Pathania.
“That’s why we’re here. We want this case to be an example for every other case that has been filed and will be filed.”
Facing public protests and political pressure, the government reformed some of its antiquated laws on sexual violence, creating fast-track courts to avoid the painfully long rape trials that can easily last over a decade.
The trial of the four men, which took about seven months, was astonishingly fast by Indian standards.
