Last November a gruesome crime took place in Delhi, which has earned the dubious distinction of being called India’s ‘rape capital’. On 16 November a young girl and her friend boarded a bus to go home after watching a movie. Unfortunately as the time was 8 pm the bus was empty and this gave ideas to the bus crew and others, six men in all. They gang raped the girl and threw her and her friend out of the bus, with a view that they will die.In fact they tried to run the bus over the couple, but seeing the traffic ran away. Luckily a CCTV camera on the road recorded the number of the bus and the Police could easily nab the culprits.
The girl lay bleeding on the road before a police van took her to hospital.Despite the best treatment and also flown to Singapore by the government the girl succumbed to her injuries. the entire nation was incensed and there were demonstrations all over the country. In response to the situation, the government brought forward a more stringent rape law which included the death penalty, which was not there in the earlier law. teh earlier law had a maximum of 7 years for rape as punishment. Thsi was teh law framed in 1860 in the Indian Penal Code.
The case was committed to a fast track court in the capital. Now 9 months later the court has given its verdict. All the 4 accused have been sentenced to death by hanging. Earlier one of the accused had committed suicide in the jail out of 5 who were brought for trial. One rapist escaped as he was juvenile being 17 years 6 months at the time of the crime. He was sentenced by a juvenile court and got just 3 years jail term in a correction home. there are demands that the age of juvenile for a crime be revised to 16 years in place of the present 18 years.
The award of the death sentence has appeased the Indian populace. Emotions had got worked up in this case and to a man everybody wanted the culprits to be hanged for this heinous crime. One can heave a sigh of relief that justice is done.
