Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Expressing satisfaction over the conviction of four accused in December 16 Delhi gang-rape case, Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday said that those guilty in such heinous crimes will be hanged in future.
Speaking to reporters, the Home Minister said, "We have made strict laws on rape. Amendment in the law has ensured that from now in such cases death penalty will be awarded."
Shinde reiterated that those found guilty will be hanged in all future cases when asked to tell whether he favoured death sentence for all accused.
His reaction came minutes after the Saket fast-track court convicted all four men for rape and murder of the 23-year-old paramedical student.
Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna found the four guilty in the case. All the accused were present in the court when the verdict was pronounced.
The court`s decision on accused - Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur - came after almost nine months of the brutal crime in which a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gang raped in a moving bus.
Meanwhile, the defence counsel of the four accused said that he would challenge the fast-track court verdict in a higher court.
"We will challenge the decision in the higher court," Defence lawyer AP Singh said.
He claimed that the verdict is politically motivated. "This verdict is politically motivated for the interest of the people. We will have to go to High Court. This is not a fair trial," Singh said.
The defence counsel further claimed that no relief was given to his clients and they were falsely implicated in the case.
The incident sparked nationwide protests and nudged the central government into enacting a stringent anti-rape law.
While an accused was found dead in a cell in Delhi`s Tihar jail, a juvenile involved in the crime was Aug 31 sent by the Juvenile Justice Board to a reform home for three years after it concluded that he was involved in rape and murder.
