First conviction in Delhi gang rape case

An Indian juvenile court found the defendant guilty of rape and murder and handed down the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.

He was 17 at the time of attack in December last year. His name cannot be published for legal reasons, although he has since turned 18.

The attack, which left the victim with such horrific injuries that she died two weeks later, sparked public outrage across the country and led to reforms of India’s sexual violence laws.

The convicted man was one of a gang of six accused of tricking the 23-year-old victim and a male companion into boarding an off-duty bus after they had watched an afternoon showing of Life of Pi at a shopping mall in the Indian capital.

Police say the men raped the woman and used a metal bar to inflict internal injuries. They also beat her male companion. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, the woman dying from her injuries in a Singapore hospital.

Four of the other defendants, who are being tried in a special fast-track court in New Delhi, face the death penalty. The court is expected to return the rest of the verdicts next month.

The sixth accused was found dead in his jail cell in March.

Family call for youth to be hanged

The victim’s family called for the teenager to be tried as an adult, accusing him of being the most violent of the attackers.

He was tried as a minor and the time he spent in a home for juveniles since his arrest in December will be taken off the three-year sentence, his lawyer said.

Asha Devi, the victim’s mother, said: “He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not. He should be punished for what he did to my daughter.”

A government reform panel and India’s top court have rejected calls to lower the age of adult criminal responsibility from 18 to 16.