Nirbhaya case: Quantum reserved for Friday

, Sept 11: The four

who have been held for the

case in December 2012 will face trial for Quantum of Sentence today. They have been found guilty of all 13 charges slapped against them by the Saket court yesterday.

After hearing the arguments of the defence and the prosecution, the court reserved the Quantum of Punishment for Friday till 2:30 pm.

11 am: Four convicts have been brought to the court. Activist and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi said that nothing less than death sentence is sufficient for the convicts.

11:49 am: Prosecution demands death sentence. Despite the defence lawyer claiming yesterday that it was not a free trial, judge Jogesh Khanna made it very clear that the act of rape and murdering a defenceless victim was "brutal" and "unnatural", causing death.

12:27 pm: Protestors waiting eagerly for the crucial verdict outside the court.

Activists from Bangalore opined that there are several reasons why it would be appropriate to issue a death sentence to the convicts. They cited the example of the Bangalore rapist and serial killer Jayashankar who escaped from the prison and the unrest among the women in the city after that. Such a psychological rapist on the loose can cause harms in the future too, they said.

Similarly, there is no guarantee that these convicts cannot escape and cause similar reasons of concern in the future. And given the kind of brutality they have meted out on the victim, they can surely be termed as mentally unstable and the incident as "rarest of rare cases".

The activists further demand a reformation in the juvenile trial as most of the rape cases in India have the juvenile playing the lead role, but escaping death penalty.

12:51 pm: Sources say that the defence has argued that 'death sentence' is a human right violation for 2 of the 4 accused as they are just 19 and 20 years old. It further demands leniency for them. The prosecution counter-argues asking 'what about the human rights violation of the victim?'

2:12 pm: After hearing the argument of the prosecution and the defence, the court reserved the Quantum of Punishment for Friday 2:30 pm.

OneIndia News