A Delhi juveniles’ court is set to deliver the first verdict on Thursday on one of five suspects being tried for the fatal gangrape of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus on December 16 that sparked outrage across India.
The court has completed hearing the case of a teenager, who was 17 at the time of the crime, and who faces a maximum sentence of three years in a correctional facility if found guilty.
The sentence may well cause further outrage as India tries to check a rising tide of violence against women and after a new law provided for stiffer punishment for adults convicted of sex crimes.
Despite calls by the victim’s family for the juvenile to be tried as an adult, legal experts feel this is not legally tenable. The accused’s lawyer produced school certificates showing he was 17 years and six months old on December 16, when the crime occurred.