“At home nobody will mange any sleep tonight,” said the father of the 23-year-old physiotherapy student who was gang-raped and fatally assaulted by six accused in December last year.
While on Tuesday a fast-track court is all set to pronounce its verdict against four of the six accused in the case, the father spoke to The Hindu on Monday and said: “One of the accused hanged himself and another [a juvenile] got only three years in a correction facility as a punishment for committing such a heinous crime. We now hope that this court will take a better view of the case and give the accused the punishment they deserve for torturing and taking away the life of an innocent girl.” “We are looking for justice from this court. Something that has so far been denied to us,” said the father.
Meanwhile, the trial, which was put on a fast-track hearing, took seven months to conclude and saw over 100 effective hearings. The court will now decide the fate of the four accused — Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta.
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Speaking about the condition of the victim’s mother, the father said: “She was shattered when the juvenile court sentenced the boy to three years in jail. He participated in raping and killing a girl just a few years older to him; what justifies the light verdict? The court has given him a second chance. Can they give my daughter a second chance to live?”
“Tonight, like previously, [the juvenile court sentencing the delinquent] we will ask God to ensure that justice is delivered and that my family is not punished again for having a girl child, who was victimised and killed. We want the guilty to be given the harshest punishment possible. We want death penalty for all of them; nothing less will do,” he said.
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