Rape is now punishable by death in India.Reuters
In a landmark verdict, a court in India pronounced the first ever death sentence under an amended law on penalty for rape offence. The amendment calls for death penalty for repeat offenders and life sentence for rapists for the rest of their natural lives.
Three repeat offenders in the gang rape of a photojournalist and a call-centre employee on the premises of an abandoned mill were sentenced to death by a Mumbai sessions court, according to local media reports.
The photojournalist was raped by five men, which included a minor who is being tried in a juvenile court.
The fifth accused was sentenced to prison for the rest of his life.
Judge Shalini Phansalkar Joshi said that the objective of the law was to send a "strong signal" to society that such grave offences must not occur again.
The court termed the gang rape by repeat offenders as a "rarest of the rare" case.
"If not in this case, then in which case can death be awarded? The accused showed no mercy towards the victim(s) [photojournalist and call-centre employee]. They were cruel in their conduct and had no remorse for the crime they committed."
Joshi appreciated the courage of the victims in lodging the case with the police.
"The court has witnessed her [photojournalist's] trauma and pain. She had fainted during her deposition. This shows the extent of her suffering," she said.
"This is a crime not only against the girl but also a crime against society. The common man will lose faith in the system if leniency is shown. There should be zero tolerance of such crimes."
The convicts had appealed to the court for mercy, citing their low economic status and the decrepit environment they were brought up in. They had pleaded to be shown leniency as they were the breadwinners of their families.
Referring to the convicts' stance, the judge noted that "their economic status is irrelevant. This was a diabolical act."
In August 2013, the 22-year-old photojournalist was gang raped by five men. The accused also reportedly made a clip of the victim during the assault. She reported the case to the police.
Following media frenzy, a 19-year-old call-centre operator came forward claiming that she too had earlier been raped by three of the accused at the same location.
In the earlier judgement on the call-centre employee trial on 20 March, the judge had ruled that the "offence was pre-meditated, they are depraved."
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