Wednesday, May 4 2005 18:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A ward boy, who proposed to marry his rape victim, was today (May 4, 2005) sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal act more than a year ago by a Delhi court after she rejected his offer and demanded death penalty for him.

"The crime committed by the convict was very grave in nature", Additional Sessions Judge J M Malik said and awarded maximum punishment to ward boy Bhura on two counts of the crime, for raping and grievously injuring a 22-year-old Keralite nurse of a private hospital in New Delhi and rejecting his last-ditch effort to earn the court's leniency.

Pronouncing the order in a packed courtroom, the judge took a grim view of 24-year-old Bhura's proposal saying, "Unconvincing pleas of the accused do not save him but rather go to affix a stamp of truth on the prosecution story".

Immediately after the sentence was delivered, Bhura's counsel Mukesh Ahuja, who appeared as an amicus curae in the case, said outside the courtroom that he would challenge the conviction and sentence in the Delhi High Court.

In the sensational incident on September 7, 2003, the ward boy, before raping her, had gouged out the victim's right eye with his fingers and injured her face and neck when she tried to shrug off his advances.

The pronouncement of quantum of sentence was deferred by a day, as the case took a dramatic turn yesterday (May 3, 2005) when, minutes before the judge was to deliver the sentence, the convict moved an application expressing the desire to marry the victim.

However, his last ditch attempt to secure the leniency of the court did not yield result, as the girl not only out rightly rejected the proposal, which had triggered a public outcry, but also urged the court hang the convict.