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Judge: Victim should wed rapist
04/05/2005 11:41 - (SA)
New Delhi - A judge in the Indian capital asked a rape victim to consider a marriage proposal from the man convicted of attacking her which if accepted could lead to a lighter sentence, media reports said on Wednesday.
The judge directed the victim and her parents to appear in court on Wednesday and reply to the marriage offer, The Hindu newspaper reported.
The court said it would hand down its sentence to the rapist, Bhura, who uses one name like many Indians, on Wednesday depending on the response his proposal received.
"I will not marry him. It is horrible, audacious ... he should be given the severest punishment. He should be hanged so that such a horrendous act is not repeated with any other girl," the 22-year-old nurse told reporters.
The rapist told the court that he was willing to marry the nurse as "no one would be ready to marry her due to the stigma" attached to rape in conservative Indian society.
Bhura, an attendant at a hospital, was arrested by the police for brutally raping the nurse on the night of September 2003 in a bathroom in one of the private rooms of the Shanti Mukund Hospital.
The victim's right eye was gouged and face scarred in the attack. She has undergone surgery four times on her eye and face since the September assault.
Bhura was arrested by the Delhi police soon after and formal charges were framed in January 2004.
With more than 320 sexual assaults in 2004, according to police records, New Delhi has earned the dubious title of being India's "rape capital".
However women's rights groups say there are hundreds of rapes that are not reported for fear of social discrimination.
After the rapist's offer was rejected, an Indian court jailed the man for life.
- AFP
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