Three sentenced to death for rape under new Indian law

Deutsche Welle, 4 April 2014

An Indian court has ordered the death sentence for three men convicted of two gang-rapes. It is the first time a law carrying the death penalty for repeat offenders has been applied.

An Indian court in the city of Mumbai on Friday sentenced three men to hang for raping two women in separate incidents.

The men were found guilty of having carried out two attacks in July and August last year at the same abandoned mill compound in Mumbai.

The victims were a 22-year-old photo-journalist - a case that made global headlines - and an 18-year-old telephone operator.

The three convicted men are between 19 and 28 years of age.

India increased penalties for sex crimes in the wake of public outrage at the fatal rape of a 23-year-old medical student in December 2012 in New Dehli. Four men were sentenced to death for that attack, and a new law carrying the death penalty for multiple offenders was introduced last year.

Also on Friday, a court in the southern state of Kerala sentenced one man to life and 23 others to varying prison terms for raping a teenager who was kidnapped and held for several weeks 18 years ago.

The men convicted in the case included lawyers, a retired professor, businessmen and government officials.

A court had acquitted all but one of the accused in 2005, but India's top court ordered a retrial last year, according to prosecutor Anella George.

tj/dr (AP, AFP)