The fate of four convicts in the 16th December gangrape and murder case was pronounced by Delhi fast track court on Friday with death penalty for all four of them.

While the victim’s family demands nothing less than capital punishment, the convicts — Mukesh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma have begged for mercy before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna, who had held them guilty of gangrape and “cold blooded” murder of a “defenceless” 23-year-old girl in a premeditated manner on Tuesday.

Having also been convicted for murder, the statute provides a minimum of life sentence and maximum of death penalty.

“The facts of the case make all accused liable for the cold blooded murder of the defenceless prosecutrix and thus the offence under Section 302 (murder) read with Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC stands proved and the accused persons are thus convicted,” the judge said.

“… all the accused in pursuance of the conspiracy committed gangrape with the prosecutrix and thus are convicted under section 376(2)(g) (gangrape) of the IPC with the aide of section 120B IPC,” the court said.

Rejecting the defence argument that the girl had died due to delayed medical aid and infection caught in the hospital during treatment, judge Khanna observed that “the important aspect of this trial is the manner in which both rods and hands were used for damaging the alimentary canal and pulling it out from the body (of the girl).

“This act of complete destruction of the most vital parts of the body can never be termed as intending to cause bodily injuries and rather it will be act done with intention of causing death.”

The judge said they had conspired to gangrape her and the crime had been committed in a “premeditated manner”. “The accused are also liable for gangrape committed with the prosecutrix in pursuance to their conspiracy,” the court said.

In his judgement, the judge said, “Circumstances, conduct and overt act of the accused persons narrated/described clearly establish that accused persons had attempted to kill the complainant.”

The December 16 incident in which the paramedic was savagely gangraped and brutally assaulted led to nationwide streets protest that heralded changes in the law.

The changes provide even for death in the case of rape but the present case was heard under the old provisions of IPC that provides a maximum sentence of life term for rape. The fifth convict Ram Singh had committed suicide in Tihar Jail in March.

Sixth convict was a juvenile at the time of the incident and has been given a maximum of three years sentence in a reformation home.

The judge said even though proceedings against accused Ram Singh (34) were abated on his death, “he is also convicted under same sections (gangrape, murder and other offences)”.