Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Indian students participate in a candlelight vigil to mark the passing the 23-year-old student who was gang-rape on a bus in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

Teen given 3 years for gang rape and murder of student on New Delhi bus

The attack, which left the 23-year-old victim with such extensive internal injuries that she died two weeks later, sparked protests across India.

AN INDIAN JUVENILE court handed down the first conviction in the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus, convicting a teenager of rape and murder and sentencing him to three years in a reform home, lawyers said.

The victim’s mother denounced the sentence, which was the maximum the defendant faced. The family had long insisted the teenager, who was 17 at the time of the attack and is now 18, be tried as an adult — and so face the death penalty — insisting he was the most brutal of the woman’s attackers.

“He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not. He should be punished for what he did to my daughter,” the mother, Asha Devi, told reporters after the verdict was announced.

Indian law forbids the publication of the teenager’s name because he was sentenced in a juvenile court.

The attack, which left the 23-year-old victim with such extensive internal injuries that she died two weeks later, sparked protests across the country and led to reforms of India’s antiquated sexual violence laws. The government, facing immense public pressure, had promised swift justice in the case.

Metal bar

The convicted defendant was one of six people accused of tricking the woman and her male companion into boarding an off-duty bus on December 16 after they had seen an afternoon showing of “Life of Pi” at a upscale shopping mall. Police say the men raped the woman and used a metal bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her. They also beat her companion. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital.

The victim’s father said the family was deeply disappointed with the verdict.

“This is completely unacceptable to us,” Badrinath Singh said. “We are not satisfied with this outcome. He is virtually being set free. This is very wrong.”

Indian law forbids the publication of the names of rape victims, even if they die.
S.K. Singh, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said they would challenge the juvenile court’s verdict in a higher court.

“We will also seek a review of the man’s age by a medical panel, since we believe he was not a juvenile when the incident took place,” Singh said.

In India, especially in rural areas, many people do not have their births properly registered, and school certificates are used as proof of age.

Singh and the defendant’s lawyer, Rajesh Tewari, both confirmed that the defendant had been convicted and his sentence.

Four of the other defendants are being tried in a special fast-track court in New Delhi and face the death penalty. The sixth accused was found dead in his jail cell in March. The court is expected to hand down the rest of the verdicts in September.

- AP

India gang-rape victim’s companion to testify today>

Lawyer of Delhi gang-rape accused denies smearing victim>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
60 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kerry Blake
    Favourite Kerry Blake
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:03 PM

    3 years. That is a disgrace.

    448
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Vinny Healy
    Favourite Vinny Healy
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:44 PM

    3 years for gang rape and murder from a country who lectured us recently about womens rights

    256
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute My Thoughts
    Favourite My Thoughts
    Report
    Sep 1st 2013, 1:59 AM

    Was he sentenced under the Irish justice system by any chance? Disgraceful …..

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel Murray
    Favourite Daniel Murray
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:01 PM

    Only 3 F**king years!!

    359
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Graham Kavanagh
    Favourite Graham Kavanagh
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:33 PM

    Week I hope somehow his name is leaked, then Lynch him and anyone who tries to defend him…

    160
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thomas walsh
    Favourite thomas walsh
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 6:13 PM

    In all honesty, what do you think would have been handed down here?!

    13
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephanie Fleming
    Favourite Stephanie Fleming
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 7:16 PM

    To be fair I think even we would have given him more than three years. But 12 months in age making a difference between three years and the death penalty seems insane to me. Total opposite ends of the punishment spectrum.

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Laura Tomas
    Favourite Laura Tomas
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:07 PM

    Christ this left a bitter taste in my mouth !!!! 3 mere years ???

    204
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dublinjonny
    Favourite Dublinjonny
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:15 PM

    3 year for rape and murder , proof of the lack of respect for human life and women in that country …. if there wws ever a place that needed to be issued with sanctioned and EU and USA people issued with a no travel warning its here , what a kip

    193
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nicola Monaghan
    Favourite Nicola Monaghan
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:06 PM

    Disgusting

    172
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Moore
    Favourite Brian Moore
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:32 PM

    Gang rape is a national sport over there, every day in the times newspaper there were multiple reports of it, and families struggling to get the authorities to take action. Lack of action and serious punishment breeds this disgusting behaviour and 3 years is a joke of a sentence.

    158
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Trish Ni Laoire-Duinn
    Favourite Trish Ni Laoire-Duinn
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:21 PM

    3 years for brutal rape and murder?disgraceful

    141
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:13 PM

    3 years is too long – it shoulda been death.

    122
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute WanderArch
    Favourite WanderArch
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 5:07 PM

    Life in solitary confinement. Oh and castration. Preferably before the solitary confinement.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute big shmoke
    Favourite big shmoke
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:36 PM

    3 fukking years? He might as well have just been given a bollocking & sent on his way!!! Gang rape is endemic in this part of the world, statistics show a gender imbalance in the population; in short, men outnumber women by a large number due to the cultural preference for male children who can provide (earn) as well the dowry practice being alive & well there also. Unfortunately the only short term solution is resolute punishment to discourage this but whilst the authorities are reluctant to investigate & prosecute sex crimes against women then this problem will endure for generations to come.

    92
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michelle Mc Loughney
    Favourite Michelle Mc Loughney
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:58 PM

    Still in ireland not to long ago,a guy in Ennis admitted rape, got off with a suspended sentence and taunted the victim and her family on the train on the way home.

    83
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute big shmoke
    Favourite big shmoke
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 4:36 PM

    The guy from Ennis was brought back before the courts as a result of this & had his sentence activated by the same judge that gave him the suspended sentence in the first place. We need a harsher judicial system.

    52
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kay Tighe
    Favourite Kay Tighe
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:28 PM

    Disgraceful .

    69
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Martin Ryan
    Favourite Martin Ryan
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:24 PM

    3 years?? He should be tortured for the rest of his life!

    68
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel R
    Favourite Daniel R
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:37 PM

    Hopefully this will spark an even bigger protest. I hope the evil bast@rd’s name gets out when he gets back from his reform (holliday) home and community justice takes over. The women of the community I should add because that patriarchal society clearly treat women as lower class.

    66
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jazz O'Gorman
    Favourite Jazz O'Gorman
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:44 PM

    In Ireland he’d probably have been acquitted of the rape charges and given an 8 year suspended sentence for the murder.

    63
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute rodrigo detriano
    Favourite rodrigo detriano
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:50 PM

    Yeah and blamed his behaviour on cholesterol medication.

    66
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Kavanagh
    Favourite Mary Kavanagh
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 3:26 PM

    Or drink and, medication was it? – like the guy on Griffith Avenue!

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Panzers_outof_petrol
    Favourite Panzers_outof_petrol
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:27 PM

    Dirty animals should be hanged

    61
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Trish Kelly
    Favourite Trish Kelly
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:37 PM

    I read a while back that a woman was on holiday in Dubai and was raped in her hotel room. When she reported it she was arrested for sex before marriage and is being tried for this. Absolutely shocking!

    61
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Murphy
    Favourite Pat Murphy
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 4:49 PM

    I think she was from Norway, heard her interview bbc5live a few weeks ago.
    mad stuff altogether!

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Therése Martin Farrell
    Favourite Therése Martin Farrell
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 5:59 PM

    She was released

    8
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dom Morgan
    Favourite Dom Morgan
    Report
    Sep 1st 2013, 7:19 AM

    The circumstances of her rape were a bit different. She went boozing with the guy (and a few others) and at the end went to a hotel room with him. She woke up being raped.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Mc
    Favourite Paul Mc
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:28 PM

    Only 3 years ? Hangings too good for the pervert.

    56
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Matt Connolly
    Favourite Matt Connolly
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:54 PM

    I hope they allow age-testing on appeal, like the recent case in Turkey, where the defense claimed one of the accused was a minor & it was proved he wasn’t.

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Cunningham
    Favourite Michael Cunningham
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 5:36 PM

    An X-ray of his wrist would give away his age.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sharon Larkin
    Favourite Sharon Larkin
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:32 PM

    I certainly wouldn’t say justice has been served with that sentence. Sickening really.

    45
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute YourName
    Favourite YourName
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:36 PM

    3 years. Wow. That’ll learn em.

    43
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute tmwtbc
    Favourite tmwtbc
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:56 PM

    Might even teach em.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute richardmccarthy
    Favourite richardmccarthy
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:30 PM

    Mind you this country cant afford to be too smug either,crazy suspended sentences are all too common here for very serious offences including rape,and a slap on the wrist for serious breaches of the law.

    42
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Audrey Ó Nuadháin
    Favourite Audrey Ó Nuadháin
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:38 PM

    The whole system here needs to be revised too.. It’s ridiculous

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James
    Favourite James
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:32 PM

    Almost encouragement shocking

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seamus Garrity
    Favourite Seamus Garrity
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 3:23 PM

    Should be hung by his balls

    37
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Costello
    Favourite David Costello
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:04 PM

    He’s 18 now so he should be tried as a adult and so face the death penalty.

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Darragh Mc Guire
    Favourite Darragh Mc Guire
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 1:36 PM

    Shocking stuff, so much for a “Justice System”.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Audrey Ó Nuadháin
    Favourite Audrey Ó Nuadháin
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:12 PM

    Death penalty all the way for dirt like this..

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Collins
    Favourite Chris Collins
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 3:18 PM

    Disgusting fcuking country….

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Carol-Anne Howlett
    Favourite Carol-Anne Howlett
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 4:43 PM

    If he was the worst offender as stated, at 17, he WILL re-offend. He should be castrated to make sure he never has the ability to do this again.

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tom Collins
    Favourite Tom Collins
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 4:28 PM

    That country is a total disgrace. I don’t care what anyone says. Gang rape and murder = 3 years while that girl has been sentenced to eternity and her family a life of sorrow and pain. It is not right on any level imaginable, but it’s all about levels in India isn’t it.

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Saoirse Geraghty
    Favourite Saoirse Geraghty
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 3:42 PM

    What a disgraceful result, her poor family, that is no justice at all!!

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Dundee
    Favourite Mary Dundee
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 3:19 PM

    perhaps he will receive a tougher punishment in prison

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute FDL_
    Favourite FDL_
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 8:51 PM

    He is not going to prison, read the article….

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Dundee
    Favourite Mary Dundee
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 9:36 PM

    prison, reform house, its probably all the same there….he will have a life sentence of looking over his shoulder as no doubt some will carry out the real sentence he should have got…….

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute macca
    Favourite macca
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:26 PM

    Wrong very wrong

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rhonda O Shea
    Favourite Rhonda O Shea
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 2:54 PM

    Speechless,,,,words fail me

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Catherine Sims
    Favourite Catherine Sims
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 4:57 PM

    Here’s hoping the international outcry will force the legal changes required from within. At the very least minors who commit violent crimes like rape and murder should have a much larger maximum sentence as it is there is no deterrent if all your faci g is 3 years. The culture of women being second class citizens and fair fame for sexual assault has to be addressed from within but hopefully international pressure will help force that change.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Kavanagh
    Favourite Mary Kavanagh
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 3:27 PM

    A rapist’s charter, that’s what that sentence is!

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hassan Hashpotato Elsafty
    Favourite Hassan Hashpotato Elsafty
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 9:56 PM

    What a fcuking joke. The fcuker will prob end up servin only half of it and the likes of chelsea manning get 35 years. Great times we’re livin in.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian O Cinneide
    Favourite Brian O Cinneide
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 8:07 PM

    What has Praveen got to say about this?

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute felicity harris
    Favourite felicity harris
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 8:09 PM

    On release he is most likely to be one of the many answering our technology queries etc or those who persistently phone from a company displaying multiple digits on our phones

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Polly O'Donnell
    Favourite Polly O'Donnell
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 7:45 PM

    Disgusting. I feel sick.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Laura Byrne
    Favourite Laura Byrne
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 3:56 PM

    Hopeless

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute phunkyboy
    Favourite phunkyboy
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 7:08 PM

    This is desperate worse than our own country.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Richard O'Gorman
    Favourite Richard O'Gorman
    Report
    Aug 31st 2013, 3:59 PM

    At least he’s going to jail and the state didn’t have pay out borrowed money to have him defended, what are ya like!

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute liam mackay
    Favourite liam mackay
    Report
    Sep 10th 2013, 12:22 PM

    Rapists are the dregs of society , useless cowardly bastards who should be branded for life .

    2
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds