Indian court sentences 4 men to life in jail for gangraping cops' daughter

NEW DELHI, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- An Indian fast-track court has sentenced four men to life in jail for raping a 19-year-old woman in the central state of Madhya Pradesh in October this year.

Judge Savita Dube handed down the punishment to the four men on Saturday after convicting them of the heinous crime in state capital Bhopal that had rocked the entire country.

The four will not be entitled to any parole after serving 14 years - which many get depending on their behavior - and will stay in jail till their death, according to the court.

The victim, the daughter of a police couple, was waylaid, gangraped and robbed by the four men while she was returning home from a coaching class in Bhopal on the night of Oct. 31.

They left her only thinking that she was dead, but she got up and informed her parents.

The case hogged media limelight as the victim was forced to visit different police stations a number of times as cops argued over jurisdiction of the area of the crime.

The state government suspended some police officials for the delay in response time even as the woman and her mother managed to catch two of the men and brought them to police station.

Rapes are on the rise in India, despite the government bringing in stricter laws in the wake of the 2012 brutal and fatal gangrape of a medical student on a moving bus in national capital. Enditem