Convicted Indian rapist shouts, 'I am innocent!'

A policeman clears the way for a vehicle carrying four men convicted in the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus. Photo / AP

One of the men convicted in the fatal gang rape of a young Indian woman called out his innocence Wednesday as police drove him into the courthouse where he and three others faced the possibility of death sentences. Minutes later, the prosecutor called for all four men to be executed.

It was not clear which of the four men was shouting, because his face was obscured behind the police van's heavy metal mesh, but he repeatedly called out, "I am innocent! I am innocent!" as the van drove past a scrum of reporters.

The men face either life imprisonment or death by hanging. Calls for the men to be executed have grown increasingly loud, with everyone from the victim's parents to top political leaders demanding all four be hanged.

On Wednesday, as their sentencing hearing began, prosecutor Dayan Krishnan called for the death penalty, saying "there can be nothing more diabolic than a helpless girl put through torture."

The four men stood as arguments began, unshackled but with policemen holding them from both sides. The family of the victim watched from a few rows from the judge's bench, the father's eyes half-closed.

A court convicted the four Tuesday in the December gang rape of the woman on a moving New Delhi bus, a brutal crime that galvanized public anger over the sexual violence faced by Indian women. The men's lawyers have long said they are innocent, and any confessions had been coerced by police torture.

The woman and a male friend of hers were coming home from a movie when the men tricked them into boarding a bus they were joy-riding. They quickly beat the friend into submission, held the woman down and took turns raping her. They also penetrated her with a metal rod, causing severe internal injuries that led to her death two weeks later.

The 23-year-old victim, who cannot be identified under Indian law, had been supported by her parents as she tried to climb into India's growing middle class. At the time of the rape, she was awaiting her exam results after finishing a degree in physiotherapy.

The defendants, like the victim, come from poor and ill-educated families. One, Mukesh Singh, occasionally drove the bus where the crime occurred and cleaned it. Another, Vinay Sharma, was a 20-year-old assistant at a gym and the only one of the attackers to graduate from high school. Akshay Thakur, 28, occasionally worked as a driver's helper on the bus. Pawan Gupta, 19, was a fruit seller.

With them on the bus were two other men. Police say Ram Singh, 33, hanged himself in prison, though his family insists he was murdered. He was the brother of Mukesh Singh, who was convicted Tuesday. Another man an 18-year-old who was a juvenile at the time of the attack and cannot be identified under Indian law was convicted in August and will serve the maximum sentence he faced, three years in a reform home.

- AP