The four death row convicts in the December 16 gangrape case have been awarded 10 years imprisonment each in connection with a case of dacoity that was committed in the same bus where the rape victim was later brutally assaulted.

A Delhi court handed out the sentence saying “the incident shakes the confidence of the public that buses plying on the road are a safe and secure mode of transport”.

Convicts Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Mukesh and Pawan Gupta, had robbed a carpenter, Ram Adhar, of his mobile phone and Rs. 1,500 cash in the bus on December 16 before sexually assaulting the 23-year-old physiotherapist in the same vehicle.

Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh observed that the ramifications of the incident did not allow the Court to show any leniency on account of their age or their economic and social backgrounds.

There was no remorse on the face of the convicts even after hearing the sentence awarded by the court, the Judge added.

The court further observed that “any person who waits at a bus stop for transportation does so with the assurance that the buses plying on the road have complied with all statutory requirements, and the person manning them have been permitted by the appropriate government to ply buses on the road after their antecedents have been verified”.

“The incident with Ram Adhar is an incident which affects every person who does not afford private transportation,” the court noted. “Even if a bus on the road is plying with all permits and statutory compliances, but that bus by chances happens to be empty, a person will think twice before entering it lest he may suffer the same fate as Ram Adhar,” the court stated.

‘The incident shakes the confidence of the public that buses plying on the road are

a safe mode of transport’