NEW DELHI – India’s Supreme Court took the unusual step on Wednesday of freeing three gang-rapists who had served just a third of their sentences after they worked out a financial settlement with their victim. A lower court had sentenced the rapists to ten years in prison — the minimum for gang rape under India law — for the crime, committed in 1997.
But the men said that they had since agreed to pay the victim 50,000 rupees, the Press Trust of India reported. Lawyers for the convicts, who appealed to be released after spending three and a half years in prison, said they and the victim had all moved on with their lives, were happily married and “wanted to live peacefully”.
