Agence France Presse

New Delhi, May 4:

An Indian court jailed a hospital attendant for life today after the nurse he raped and blinded rebuffed a last-ditch marriage proposal from her attacker which could have reduced his sentence.

Judge JM Malik handed down the sentence to Bhura, who uses one name like many Indians, after his offer to marry the victim in hopes of a lighter sentence was dismissed by the court. The judge had outraged women’s rights groups yesterday by directing the victim and her parents to reply to the marriage offer saying the court would hand down its sentence to the convicted rapist depending on the response the proposal received.

The 22-year-old nurse rebuffed the marriage proposal almost as soon as it was made. “The convict has committed a horrendous crime which should not be repeated. After he was found guilty, he is trying to escape punishment with a bogus marriage offer,” the nurse told the court in an affidavit today. “I will not marry him. He should be given the severest punishment. He should be hanged so that such a horrendous act is not repeated with any other girl,” she said.