Death verdict not under political pressure: victim’s father

Women celebrate after the Delhi gangrape convicts were awarded death sentence, in Mumbai on Friday.

The father of the Delhi gangrape victim has taken a strong exception to the defence counsel’s contention that death penalty was awarded to the four convicts under political pressure and termed the statement as an insult to the judiciary.

“The defence counsel is terming the death penalty awarded to those responsible for the ghastly act as taken under political pressure and it appears as if he is challenging the judiciary. This is an insult of the judiciary,” the father of the girl told PTI on phone.

“If something as gruesome as this had happened with his daughter or a relative, had he said the same thing,” he said.

The court has given its verdict not under political pressure, but on the basis of the evidences, he said, adding that he had full confidence that if challenged in higher courts, the High Court and the Supreme Court would also uphold the death sentence.

After a fast track court announced the death sentence yesterday, defence counsel A.P. Singh termed it as an order taken under political pressure and stated that “if the country wanted this case to be a deterrent, I will wait for two months to see the crime scene. If no rape takes place due to death being given in the instant case, I will give in writing that my clients be hanged,” he had said.

The father said that now his family is waiting for the day when those who wronged his daughter would be hanged.

He said that after the incident, there is a major awareness in the country with regard to incidents of rape and there is a need to keep the fight against this ghastly crime against women alive.

On the night of December 16 last year, Ram Singh (34), Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19), Vinay Sharma (20) and a juvenile gangraped the 23-year-old paramedic student in a moving bus in South Delhi after luring her and her 28-year-old male friend, who was also assaulted, on board the vehicle. The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29 at a Singapore hospital.

Ram Singh was found dead in his prison cell in March this year and proceedings against him were abated. The juvenile was sentenced to three years in a probation home by the Juvenile Justice Board on August 31.