RAPE CASE: New Delhi Gang Rapers All Sentenced to Death!

An event when a young woman was brutally gang raped last December, Indians reacted with fury and the government passed tough new laws making it easier to impose the death penalty in some rape cases.

Four of the perpetrators have been convicted along with a fifth who was tried in juvenile court, but neither the family nor the public will be satisfied unless all of the attackers get the death sentence.

The FT's Amy Kazmin looks how the news has been received in India.


An Indian court sentenced four men to death Friday for the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi, an attack that appalled the South Asian nation.

Announcing the sentence, Judge Yogesh Khanna said the crime "shocked the collective conscience" of India and fell into the "rarest of rare category" that deserves capital punishment. "In these times when crimes against women are on the rise, the court cannot turn a blind eye to this gruesome act," he said.

One of the convicted men, Vinay Sharma, broke down in tears and cried loudly as the judge spoke. Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty for the men, citing the "extreme brutality" of the attack, which took place on a moving bus in December. They had also argued the court needed to send a message to Indian society with its judgment.

A defence lawyer outside court after challenging the death sentences in the case of the gang-rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus last year. Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP