Four could face noose over horrific gang rape and murder on Indian bus

An Indian court has convicted four men over the fatal gang 
rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi last December.

Sentences for the men, who face the possibility of hanging, are expected to be handed down today.

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.

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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 abused her 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 yesterday, 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.”

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Facing public protests and political pressure, the government reformed 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 took about seven months, astonishingly fast by Indian standards.

Reading out his verdict, Judge Yogesh Khanna said the men had committed “murder of a helpless person”.

The parents of the rape victim had tears in their eyes as the verdicts were read out. Her mother, wearing a pink sari, sat just feet from the convicted men in a packed courtroom.

AP Singh, a lawyer for the men, told reporters: “These accused have been framed simply to please the public. This is not a fair trial.”

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