Less than nine months after the December 16 brutal gangrape incident, a fast track Delhi court today held all the five accused, including a man who died during the trial, guilty of rape and cold blooded murder of a "defenceless" 23-year-old girl that can fetch them death.
The quantum of sentence to convicts--Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur--in the case that shook the nation's conscience will be argued tomorrow before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna, who delivered 237-page judgement.
"The facts of the case make all accused liable for the cold blooded murder of the defenceless prosecutrix and thus the offence under Section 302 (murder) read with Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC stands proved and the accused persons are thus convicted," the judge said.
"... All the accused in pursuance of the conspiracy committed gangrape with the prosecutrix and thus are convicted under section 376(2)(g) (gangrape) of the IPC with the aide of section 120B IPC," the court said.
Rejecting the defence argument that the girl had died due to delayed medical aid and infection caught in the hospital during treatment, judge Khanna observed that "the important aspect of this trial is the manner in which both rods and hands were used for damaging the alimentary canal and pulling it out from the body (of the girl).
"This act of complete destruction of the most vital parts of the body can never be termed as intending to cause bodily injuries and rather it will be act done with intention of causing death."
The judge said they had conspired to gangrape her and the crime had been committed in a "premeditated manner".
"The accused are also liable for gangrape committed with the prosecutrix in pursuance to their conspiracy," the court said.
