Death sentences in India rape case announced to cheers

New Delhi — Four men convicted of a gang rape and murder were sentenced Friday to die by hanging, a decision met with satisfaction on the part of the victim’s parents and cheers from the crowd outside the courthouse, where some held up makeshift nooses and pictures of hanging bodies.

The men— a vendor, a bus attendant, a handyman and an unemployed man — were found guilty Tuesday of raping a young woman on a bus in December, penetrating her with a metal rod and inflicting grave injuries, then dumping her on the roadside.

The country was riveted by the story of the woman, who died two weeks later, and thousands of people demanded tougher policing and prosecution of sex crimes.

But until the last minute it was unclear whether this would lead to death sentences in a country where liberal and populist impulses have strained against one another, reservingthedeathsentences for “the rarest of rare cases.”

News of the decision was met with jubilation on the street outside.

“This is the beginning of freedom for Indian women today,” said Raman Deep Kaur, 38, a cosmetologist. “Today we are free, because these men are going to be killed.”

It is far from clear, however, that the men will be executed in the near future — or at all.

Sadashiv Gupta, a lawyer for one of the men, said he had reassured his client that the ruling would very likely be commuted to life imprisonment.

“I met with my client and I told him, ‘You are going to get the death penalty, take it in stride and don’t panic,’’’ Gupta said. “I think he shall not be hanged.”

Defense lawyers invoked the “rarest of the rare” language laid out in a 1980 court decision that overturned a death sentence. But Judge Yogesh Khanna invoked the possibility of a wave of violence against women.

“In these times when crimes against women are on the rise, the court cannot turn a blind eye to this gruesome act,” he said, according to reporters in the courtroom.

Although there were six men on the bus when the woman was attacked, two were not sentenced Friday.