Indian Teenager found guilty of Delhi Gang Rape Case, Receives 3 Years Sentence

Plain clothes policemen escort an Indian teenager (head covered with towel) after he was sentenced at a juvenile court in New Delhi August 31, 2013. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

The first of five suspects on trial for the fatal gang rape of a young woman last year December has been found guilty of rape and murder. 

The verdict announced Saturday (31.08.2013) was eagerly awaited by millions of people not only in India, but also around the world. 

The defendant was one of six people accused of tricking a 23-year-old woman and her male companion into boarding an off-duty bus in the Indian capital on December 16, 2012. 

Police said the men raped and brutalized the physiotherapy student and savagely beat
the man on the moving bus before dumping them naked on the roadside. 

The woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

The young suspect, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was sentenced to three years in a correctional facility, including the time he has already spent in custody. 

It is the maximum penalty allowed for a juvenile offender under Indian law.

Meanwhile, the victim's parents have denounced the sentence, insisting the teen, who was 17 at the time of the December attack and is now 18, be tried as an adult - and thus face the death penalty - insisting he was the most brutal of the woman's attackers.

"He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not. He should be punished for what he did to my daughter," the victim's mother, Asha Devi, told reporters after the verdict was announced.