Death Sentence’ Christians in debate mode

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, May 09, 2017: Social activists and church leaders in India are divided on the death sentence for four men convicted of gang raping a student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.

The Supreme Court on May 5 upheld the original decision by a New Delhi city court in 2013. The court described their crime as "savage lust."

The four men: Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur were convicted by the court in 2013 of repeatedly raping the 23-year-old victim and assaulting her with an iron pipe and later dumping her at a street corner.

The victim died of her injuries two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore where she had been transferred.

Six men were involved in the crime. They were found guilty on 13 counts by the city court including murder, rape and destruction of evidence.

One of them, Ram Singh, died in jail during the trial period. Another convict was a juvenile when he committed the crime and was released in 2015 after serving a brief sentence at a correctional facility.

The intensity of the incident led to an outrage across the country, forcing the federal government to make the law against more rape stringent, changing the maximum punishment from 10 years in jail to the death penalty.

Divided opinion

Ranjana Kumari, a women’s activist, told media that the verdict was "historic" and it would "send a message to all the people that the mindset that wrongs women is criminal."

Jyotsana Chatterjee, director of the Church of North India’s Joint Women’s Program, told media that the verdict was justified. However, she lamented the juvenile convicted in the case who got off with a lesser sentence.  "I met him in the juvenile home and he had absolutely no feeling of remorse that he had done something wrong. He was quite happy with what he did," she said.

A.C. Michael, a former member of the minorities’ commission, stated that that he favored the judgment. "Even though the church is against capital punishment in this case it could be justified given the brutality of the crime," Michael, a Catholic said.

However, Rev Savari Muthu Shankar, spokesperson for Delhi Archdiocese, said the verdict reflected "public sentiments" and the convicts could have "been given a chance to reform themselves." "It is in no way wrong in giving a person a chance to reform," he said reiterating the Catholic Church’s stand against capital punishment.

Samuel Jaikumar, an official of the National Council of Churches in India, said that "some harsh punishment was needed" in the case but "not death."  "There is no doubt about the brutality shown by convicts in this case toward the victim and they needed very harsh punishment but not death. They should have been given a chance to reform," he said.

On an average more than 95 women are raped in India every day, according to the federal government’s National Crime Records Bureau. In 2015, police registered more than 34,000 complaints regarding rape and 84,000 women filed sexual harassment cases.