Four men convicted of a brutal gang rape were sentenced Friday to die by hanging, a decision met with grim satisfaction from the victim’s parents and triumphant cheers from the crowd outside the courthouse, where some held up pictures of bodies in nooses.
The four men – a fruit vendor, a bus attendant, a gym handyman and an unemployed man – were found guilty on Tuesday of raping a young woman on a moving bus last December, penetrating her with a metal rod and inflicting grave internal injuries, then dumping her out on the roadside.
The country was riveted by the story of the woman, who died of her injuries two weeks later, and tens of thousands of people flooded the streets to demand tougher policing and prosecution of sex crimes.