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August 31st, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Indian protestors hold candles during a rally in New Delhi on December 29,
2012, after the death of a gang rape student from the Indian capital Delhi.
According to police Raju had raped the victim twice, once while she was
unconscious, and inflicted some of the internal injuries from which she
later died.
He had been identified as one of the six who had tortured the couple on the
bus by Ram Singh, the driver, who was later found dead in his cell. He was
also named by the victim in her “dying declaration.”
Her statement, given to a magistrate, described her attackers as illiterate “driver-cleaner
type people,” highlighting the contrast between the poor but
aspirational India she symbolised, and its hopeless shadow from which her
killers emerged.
According to the police, Raju was one of seven children of a sick, poor casual
labourer and her mentally-ill husband who lived on the fringes of dusty,
remote village in Uttar Pradesh. He had left home aged 12 to work in
roadside transport cafés and eventually got a job as a bus conductor where
his unique “sing-song” style of calling passengers was good for
business.
He was regularly poached by rival drivers and owners and eventually came to
work for Ram Singh. He had already moved on and was merely returning to
collect unpaid wages on the night he boarded the bus for a final stint as
conductor following a heavy drinking session.
In an interview with The Telegraph in January, the victim’s father said
Raju had been the worst of six and deserved the death penalty despite being
a minor under Indian law.
“All six should be hanged, especially the juvenile who was the most
brutal. If the law has to be changed to enable that, then so be it,” he
said.
The Indian government introduced new, tougher laws, and moves to fast-track
rape trials to improve safety for women, but no changes were made to its age
of criminal responsibility.
The victim’s brother Gaurav Singh said the family was angry that he would only
serve three years.
“I just want justice. Real justice would be life or hanging,” he
said on Saturday.
His mother, Asha Devi, who broke down in tears, said she intends to challenge
the sentence in the higher courts if he does not receive a higher sentence. “Three
years is not enough,” she said.
The victim had called for all of her attackers to be hung in her “dying
declaration,” six days after the incident.
“All of them should be hung to death so that these criminals do not do
any such acts to any other girls, which is inhuman. They are animal like
people. They should be burned alive,” she said.
The lawyer for the juvenile, Rajesh Tiwari, said he would study the verdict
and prepare and appeal.
The trial of the four surviving accused in the case is expected to conclude in
mid-September.
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