A fast track court is likely to pronounce on Tuesday its verdict in the December 16 gang-rape case, in which four adult accused were tried for the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic in a moving bus. The verdict in the incident, which had evoked nationwide outrage and consequent amendments to the anti-rape laws, follows a trial which was concluded in 130 hearings and was extensively covered by the media.
The decision comes almost 10 days after the juvenile accomplice was sentenced to a three-year remand at a detention centre after being held guilty by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) of gang-rape and murder of the intern and robbing a carpenter before the gang-rape on the same bus. The trial in the robbery case against the four is making headway in another court. While the victim’s male companion did not attend to repeated phone calls made, his counsel DK Mishra said, “He wants to move on with his life.” The victim’s parents, who were not satisfied with the sentence meted out to the juvenile, say “nothing less than death to the four adult accused can do justice to our deceased daughter.” The paramedic’s brother, however, accepts that law provides not more than three years’ punishment to a juvenile, but adds that the four co-accused should get death as all evidence against them were placed extensively before the Court.
Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna had on September 3 reserved his order for Tuesday after prosecution and the accused concluded their arguments. During the trial, accused Mukesh admitted to his presence on the bus, three accused — Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta — denied the charges against them while prime accused and bus driver Ram Singh was found dead in his cell barracks at Tihar Jail on March 11, just over a month since the beginning of proceedings.