We are waiting for the day the rapists will hang: Victim's father

The father of the Delhi gang rape 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 the phone.

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

The court has given its verdict not under political pressure, but on the basis of the evidence, 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 on Friday, defence counsel A P Singh termed it as an order taken under political pressure and stated, "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”.

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 has been major awareness in the country about incidents of rape and there was 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 gang raped the 23-year-old paramedic student in a moving bus in South Delhi. 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.

Photograph: Reuters