Four Held Guilty For Dec 16 Gang Rape

New Delhi: A Delhi court convicted four men for the Dec 16, 2012, gang rape here of a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who subsequently died of her grave injuries.

Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna found the four men guilty under charges of gang rape, murder, attempt to murder the victim's male friend, unnatural offences, destruction of evidence and dacoity among other offences.

The quantum of sentence will be announced Wednesday, the judge said.

The four accused, held in jail since the crime was committed, were present in the court when the verdict was pronounced.

"I convict all the accused persons for gang rape, murder of helpless victim, attempt to kill complainant (victim's male friend), conspiracy, common intention, destruction of evidence....," the judge said while convicting the accused.

The accused face the maximum punishment of death in the case.

The court's verdict on Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur came after almost nine months of the brutal crime in which the physiotherapy intern was gang raped in a moving bus.

Vinay Sharma began to cry on hearing the judgment.

The gory incident sparked nationwide protests and nudged the central government into enacting a stringent anti-rape law.