INDIA: MUMBAI COURT ORDERS FIRST DEATH SENTENCE FOR MULTIPLE RAPES

April 4, 2014: An Indian judge ordered three men to hang after they were convicted of two gang-rapes.
The death sentences are the first to be handed down for multiple sex attacks since the law was toughened last year.
The ruling was announced at a court in Mumbai for the two attacks in July and August last year at the same abandoned mill compound in the city.
They included an attack on a photographer that made global headlines.
Mohammed Salim Ansari, 28, Vijay Mohan Jadhav, 19, and Mohammed Kasim Hafeez Shaikh, 21 were convicted last month after a fast-track trial.
They were subsequently handed life sentences for one of those assaults, the gang-rape of an 18-year-old phone operator.
But they were also convicted this week under a new section of the law for being repeat rape offenders, which carries the death penalty.
"There needs to be zero tolerance for such incidents," Judge Shalini Phansalkar Joshi said.
"A loud and clear message needs to be sent to society."
Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said this was the first such conviction under the modified law. (Sources: AFP, 05/04/2014)