ET: NEW DELHI: Indian rights groups voiced dismay Saturday over death sentences handed to four men for a fatal gang rape, saying it was unlikely to reverse the country’s “rape crisis” despite a clamour for their execution.
After a seven-month fast-track trial, Judge Yogesh Khanna said Friday the four men should be “hanged by the neck till they are dead” for the brutal rape of a 23-year-old woman on a bus last December.
After the sentencing, people distributed sweets on the street in celebration and tweeted that “justice” had been served.
But on Saturday, rights network Avaaz slammed the verdict, urging the government instead to launch a mass public education campaign to stop India’s “rape epidemic”.
“Executing these men won’t bring back the woman they raped or reverse India’s rape crisis. The only way to stop rape before it starts is with a massive public education campaign,” the online activist network said.
Categories: Asia