Delhi gang-rape case: The four men who have been given the death sentence

Nine months after a young medical student was gang-raped and murdered on a moving bus in Delhi, four men have been given the death sentence for the attack that shocked India and ignited weeks of protests demanding better safety for women and swift justice for the 23-year-old who was killed.

Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh were sentenced to death by hanging at a fast-track court in Delhi today. They were found guilty of "cold-blooded murder" on Wednesday. The judge said today that it was a "rarest of rare case" that deserved the death penalty.

The four men are expected to appeal against the sentence in a higher court. Vinay Sharma broke down as the sentence was pronounced. A defence lawyer alleged that the judgment was made under "political pressure."

The student's parents have repeatedly demanded the death sentence for those who killed their daughter. "They did not spare her," her father said after the men were convicted, "why should they be shown any mercy?"

The woman and her male friend were lured onto a bus on December 16 after they left a mall where they had watched a film.

As the bus drove through South Delhi, passing through three police check points, the men hit the student's friend with iron rods before using them to violate her. 45 minutes later, the couple was thrown naked and semi-conscious on the road.

The young woman's injuries were so severe that she died in hospital in Singapore two weeks after the attack.

Before she died, she gave a detailed statement to the police, which helped convict her attackers; her family says she also told them she wanted to see the men burn.

For days, thousands of demonstrators marched in different cities, forcing the government to introduce tougher laws to punish sexual offences; special courts to try rape cases quickly were also sanctioned.

Of the six men who were arrested, the alleged ring leader was found hanging in his prison cell in March. Another, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was convicted by a juveniles court last month and sentenced to three years in a reform centre.