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Newspapers published on September 1, 2013 show the reaction to the first verdict in the New Delhi gang rape case/AFP

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Outrage in India over first Delhi gang-rape sentence

Newspapers published on September 1, 2013 show the reaction to the first verdict in the New Delhi gang rape case/AFP

Newspapers published on September 1, 2013 show the reaction to the first verdict in the New Delhi gang rape case/AFP

NEW DELHI, Sep 1 – India’s opposition said Sunday it would seek tougher punishments for juveniles after the first verdict in the New Delhi gang rape case saw a teenager sentenced to three years’ detention, sparking widespread anger.

The rape and murder of a 23 year old student by six attackers on a moving bus last December sparked nationwide protests and led to reforms that mandated longer sentences for adult sex offenders.

Sushma Swaraj, opposition leader in the lower house of parliament, said she would introduce a bill this week to amend the law for juveniles.

“This meagre punishment of just three years does not do justice,” Swaraj wrote on Twitter.

“The sentence must commensurate with the gravity of the offence irrespective of the age of the offender,” she added.

On Saturday a juvenile court in New Delhi sentenced the only under-age suspect in the gang who was 17 at the time of the crime to three years in a correctional facility.

This was the maximum sentence under Indian law, which treats all under-18s as children and seeks to reform rather than punish them.

“TRAVESTY: December 16 teen rapist ‘gets away’ with murder,” a headline in the tabloid Mail Today read, summing up the mood.

The convicted teen will spend about 28 months in a juvenile detention centre, having already spent about eight months in custody awaiting the verdict.

“He can watch TV, play games while doing time,” the Hindustan Times reported, while pointing out that police sources had earlier described the teenager as “the most brutal” of the six attackers.

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The Times of India said the gang rape victim had “been denied justice” by the juvenile court.

Subramanian Swamy, a politician from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, told AFP the teenager “should have been executed” and he intended to file an appeal against Saturday’s court order.

Swamy has already lodged a petition in the Supreme Court challenging India’s juvenile law for not taking the gravity of a crime into account during sentencing.

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