‘Only death will bring us peace’

Nothing short of a death sentence: This is what the father of the paramedical student who was brutally gang-raped on the night of December 16 last year wants as punishment for the four accused. Harish V Nair reports.

Nothing short of a death sentence: This is what the father of the paramedical student who was brutally gang-raped on the night of December 16 last year wants as punishment for the four accused.

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A special fast track court is expected to pronounce the judgment in the case on Tuesday.

“Nothing short of a death sentence will satisfy us. It will bring peace to our minds and the whole country,” he told HT.

The special court had concluded the trial on September 3 in the case that had shocked and angered the country, forcing the government to bring in a more stringent rape law.

Crestfallen at the punishment of three years in a reformatory home given to the youngest of the accused — who was a juvenile at the time of the crime — the girl’s parents said it “virtually amounted to acquittal and the law has to be changed to hang him”.

Winding up his arguments in court, special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan had said he has placed sufficient evidence before the court to prove that each of the accused — Vinay, Akshay, Pawan and Mukesh — is guilty.

The prosecution said the four accused raped the woman and also shoved an iron rod in her body after assaulting her male friend. She eventually succumbed to her injuries on December 29 in a Singapore hospital.