Delhi gangrape victim's family wants death for juvenile accused

BJP-led municipal corporation names science museum after victim, father welcomes move.

As the trial began on Tuesday, the father and brother of the Delhi gangrape victim urged the government not to let the minor accused be tried as a juvenile.

"I believe that all boys who have attained the age of 14 years are conscious of their acts and cannot be treated as juvenile. And we demand that all the accused who are involved in a crime this heinous should be given the death sentence," said the brother at a press conference here on Tuesday.

The father urged that his daughter be treated as a "braveheart" rather than a victim. "I have stopped reading newspapers and watching television. I hate it when they keep calling her a victim. She has sacrificed herself, started a revolution. She laid down her life so that the world could wake up to the rights of women," he said.

He also thanked the BJP for naming a science museum after her. The party said it had got a written undertaking from the family to use her name for the centre. The father said the family had asked the Delhi BJP chief to do something in her memory. "We were glad to authorise them. She should get her deserved place in society," he said.

The press conference was called by the BJP to announce the museum.

Asked about the J S Verma report, both the father and brother said they were ignorant of the committee's recommendations and said all they wanted to hear was death penalty for the six accused.

The father revealed that the visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi had come as a surprise. "We had been putting in requests to meet them but we did not expect them to come to us in person," added the father.

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