DHAKA: Prosecutors sought the death sentence on Wednesday for four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a student on a New Delhi bus last December, saying the ‘diabolical’ crime had shocked the country’s conscience.

Judge Yogesh Khanna is hearing arguments in a fast-track court in the south of the Indian capital as he considers how to punish the men who were found guilty of ‘cold-blooded murder’ on Tuesday.

He faces widespread calls from the public and leading politicians to hand down the death sentence, which can be given for ‘the rarest of rare’ crimes but is seldom carried out in practice.

‘The court should give the maximum sentence otherwise the message will go to society that deviance of this nature will be tolerated,’ special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan told the packed court, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1541 HRS, SEPT 11, 2013
RoR/GCP