India's top court upholds death sentences for four

India's top court yesterday upheld death sentences against four men who fatally gang raped a woman on board a bus in 2012, a crime that sparked widespread protests and drew international attention to violence against women.

Applause broke out in court among relatives of the victim - whose identity is protected by law - as judges explained the crime met the "rarest of the rare" standard required to justify capital punishment in India.

"It's a barbaric crime and it has shaken the society's conscience," Justice R Banumathi said, as a three-judge Supreme Court panel threw out an appeal on behalf of the defendants.

The five men and a juvenile lured the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist and her male friend on to a bus in New Delhi on Dec 16, 2012, before repeatedly raping the woman and beating both with a metal bar and dumping them on a road.

The woman died of internal injuries nearly two weeks later in a Singapore hospital. "I am very satisfied. Today I am happy," the victim's mother said outside the courthouse.

Her father said: "It's not just a victory for my family, it's a victory for each and every woman in our country."

Four of the attackers were sentenced to death 2013 while the fifth hanged himself in prison during the original seven-month trial. That verdict was upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2014.

The four - gym instructor Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Thakur, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta and unemployed Mukesh Singh - then appealed to the Supreme Court. The defendants were not in court yesterday.

A P Singh, a lawyer representing three of the condemned men, said justice had not been done. He vowed to file a review petition to the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The last recourse of the convicts, all of whom are now in their twenties, would be to seek clemency from President Pranab Mukherjee.