In the first conviction in the December 16 gang-rape case, the juvenile accused was today found guilty of murder and rape of the 23-year-old girl but he got away with a maximum of three years imprisonment mandated under the juvenile law.

The juvenile who was six months short of 18 years — the age of majority — was, however, acquitted by the Juvenile Justice Board of attempt to murder of the paramedic’s male friend, who was the sole eye witness to the dastardly incident that shook the nation.

The verdict came under attack from the mother of the victim who said it was not acceptable to her.

“There was no need for these proceedings. We have been fooled. I don’t accept the judgement. What was the need for keeping us waiting for the whole day,” the victim’s mother said after the verdict.

The Board, presided over by Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel sentenced the minor to three years in a probation home, the maximum punishment that can be awarded under the Juvenile Justice Act.

The eight months already spent by the juvenile in custody during the inquiry will be considered as period already served and would be deducted from the three years sentence.

The Board had on July 11 also convicted the accused, a cleaner in the bus in which the victim was raped on the fateful night, in another case of robbery.

It today awarded him the sentence already undergone by him in the probation home for robbing Ramadhar, a carpenter who had boarded the bus but was thrown out before the gang-rape victim and her friend were assaulted.

On the night of December 16, last year, the 23-year-old victim, a paramedic student, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted by six persons in a moving bus. The victim later succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29, last.

The four adult accused are being tried by a fast-track court in Saket here. Another accused Ram Singh was found dead on March 11 in his cell in Tihar Jail and the trial against him has been abated.

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