Girl's family take solace in death penalty for convict

When the judge sentenced the man to death... I felt content that my daughter was finally given justice for the brutality she went through. We waited for six years VICTIM'S MOTHER

- Hemani Bhandari

NEW DELHI: "It truly feels like justice has been served and my daughter in heaven would be smiling", the 45-year-old father of a brutal rape and murder victim said a day after the convict in the case was sentenced to death for the crime that took place in Nihal Vihar, outer Delhi, in February 2019.

While the rapist, Rajender Kumar, who was 21 years old at the time of the crime, was sentenced to death, his father Ram Saran, then 52, was sentenced to life imprisonment for helping his son dispose of the eight-year-old girl's body, according to the verdict issued by a Delhi court on Friday.

Sitting in their house on a cramped street in Nihal Vihar on Saturday, the victim's mother said she was in the court when the judge passed the sentence. "When she sentenced the man to death, for a second, I felt someone will die; but, I also felt content that my daughter was finally given justice for the brutality she went through. We waited for six years to see this day," the 38-year-old homemaker said.