Delhi braveheart's mother says juvenile accused must be tried according to crime, not age
Ahead of the verdict on the youngest accused in the Delhi gang-rape, the parents of the 23-year-old girl who was assaulted and raped by six men in a moving bus, said they would be denied closure if one of their daughter's killers got off lightly.
The juvenile accused, who was just a few months short of 18 at the time of the savage crime, faces a maximum of three years at a correctional home if he is convicted.
"How will I live knowing that the killers of my daughter are still alive?" said the visibly distraught mother of the braveheart, before going to the Juvenile Justice Board for the verdict.
"I request the courts, the juvenile should be punished on the basis of the crime he committed, not his age. His crime was as grave as that of the others, so why should he get less punishment?"
Even as they waited for the first verdict in the case after eight long months, the family said they felt angry and betrayed.
"We don't know much about law, but we know that if the juvenile gets a lighter punishment, it will send a wrong message - it will encourage more such crimes," the mother said.
The inquiry against the juvenile, who had said he is innocent, was completed on August 5 but the ruling was deferred repeatedly because of a Supreme Court case filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy which seeks to change the legal definition of a juvenile.
The girl's family had asked for the death penalty for all six men accused of the barbaric attack and said the juvenile should be tried as an adult as a special case, given the sheer depravity of the crime.
The fatal attack on the physiotherapy intern provoked national outrage and impelled an overhaul of archaic laws to punish sexual crimes against women.