Court confirms death sentence in India gang rape

NEW DELHI — A New Delhi court on Thursday confirmed the death penalty imposed by a lower court to four men convicted for the gang rape and murder of a young woman on a moving bus in 2012.

A special fast track court had sentenced the men in September, saying their crime was one of the rarest of rare cases that warranted the death penalty.

The Delhi High Court dismissed the appeals filed by the men and said it "affirmed" the sentence given by the lower court.

The 23-year-old medical student and a friend were returning home from a movie when the men tricked them into boarding a bus they were joy-riding. They beat the friend into submission, held the woman down and took turns raping her. They also penetrated her with a rod, causing severe internal injuries that led to her death two weeks after the December 2012 attack.

The brutality of the crime unleashed a wave of public anger over the treatment of Indian women and a long-unspoken epidemic of sexual violence in the country.

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