Four of the six rapists accused of fatally gang-raping a 23-year-old physiotherapy student last December, has been sentenced to death by hanging.

The court handed out their sentences Friday, September 13, to the jubilation of hundreds of spectators and protesters waiting outside. One of the suspects burst into tears, and the rest of the defendants teary eyed as they were escorted from the courthouse.

Death by hanging, known as the most severe punishment in India, is restricted for the crimes that are considered to be "rarest of the rare." It can be delayed for decades, with the accused appealing to higher courts, and appealing for a clemency petition to the president himself. With as more as 450 people on death row, only three have been executed in the last nine years, two of whom were Islamic militants, and a man accused of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old.

The judge, Yogesh Khanna, has said that the case "definitely falls in the rarest of rare categories." He then tells the courtroom that the attack has "shocked the collective conscience of India." Many scholars have agreed and approved of the sentence, saying that only the harshest of crimes should deserve the harshest of punishments.

However, the defense lawyers have argued that the sentence will do nothing to reduce crime rates, citing that all it has done is a short-term vengeance that will soon be forgotten by the angry populace. Human Rights representatives have also echoed the same sentiments, saying that hanging the guilty will not iron out a deep-rooted social problem: with women still treated as second class members of society, with several women telling stories of daily abuse by men.

The sixth suspect has committed suicide in his cell last march, while another has been sent to a reform home, since he is underage.

The victim and her friend had been assaulted on the bus; her friend had been beaten unconscious while the six took turns in raping her, later sodomizing her with the metal rod they had used to beat her friend. They were dumped onto a highway two hours later, the friend confirming reports that the suspects had tried to run them over with the bus. The victim died of massive internal injuries and blood poisoning two weeks later.