New Delhi: A convict who was 17 when he participated in the heinous and fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a Delhi bus cannot be tried by a regular court, said Supreme Court judges today, rejecting the request of the victim’s parents.
Six men were found guilty of the gang-rape that shocked India and ignited huge street protests and a national debate on the lack of safety for women.
The teen was tried by a special juvenile court last year and given the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home. The parents of the woman who died said that punishment was not severe enough, and asked for him to be tried by a regular court, where the death sentence could apply if he were to be found guilty.
In December 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern boarded a bus with her male companion. Six men then assaulted him and took turns raping her before flinging the barely conscious couple onto a road. Her injuries were so severe that she died nearly a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
Bureau Report
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