Court verdict in Indian gang rape case next week

NEW DELHI (AP) A fast-track court will issue a verdict next week in the trial of four men accused in the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman on a moving bus in New Delhi last year.

Judge Yogesh Khanna concluded hearings Tuesday after defense and prosecution lawyers completed their final arguments.

"The judge has said he will give his verdict on Sept. 10," said A.P. Singh, a lawyer for two of the defendants.

Police say the 23-year-old female medical student and a male friend were attacked when they boarded a private bus they thought would take them home after watching a movie at a shopping mall on Dec. 16.

Six attackers beat the man and raped the woman, inflicting massive internal injuries with a metal bar, police said. The victims were dumped on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

One of the accused was found dead in his jail cell in March and a juvenile defendant was sentenced last Saturday to three years in a reform home.

The four remaining men face possible death penalties.

The assault caused nationwide outrage and forced the government to change rape laws and create fast-track courts for rape cases. The new law introduced after the December attack makes stalking, voyeurism and sexual harassment a crime. It also provides for the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim's death.