Court verdict would prove to be a deterrent: Dikshit

, Sep 13: Delhi

today welcomed the court order, handing down death sentence to four convicts in the December 16 gangrape case that had triggered violent protests in the city, besides other parts of the country.

The Chief Minister said the severe punishment given to the convicts will act as a deterrent. "I welcome the judgement. Justice has prevailed. The fast track court has delivered justice expeditiously. I hope that the judgement would prove to be a deterrent," Dikshit said.

A fast track court today awarded death sentenced to four men--Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh--for their involvement in the rape and murder of the girl.

Delivering the judgement, the court said the "beastly" and "hair-raising" manner in which the crime was committed against a 23-year-old girl falls in the rarest of rare category. On the night of December 16 last year, Ram Singh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and a juvenile had gangraped the girl in a bus after luring her and her 28-year-old male friend, who was also assaulted on board, which was later found to be plying illegally on Delhi roads.

The victim's friend, a software engineer, fractured his limbs in the incident. The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at a Singapore hospital. Following the public outcry, Delhi government had promised to install CCTV cameras and GPS devices in all the city buses besides proposing to deploy security personnel in DTC buses. But nothing much appears to have happened on the ground.

Unhappy over deteriorating law and order situation, Dikshit had severely slammed Delhi Police and even demanded removal of the then police commissioner Neeraj Kumar.

PTI