IndiaAn Indian hospital orderly convicted of raping and partly blinding a young nurse has offered to marry her, saying no one else would now.
The victim and rights groups were furious a court allowed the man's request on Tuesday, minutes before he was due to be sentenced, for his proposal to be considered by the family.
After hearing the victim and her family yesterday, the judge jailed the man, Bhura , for life for raping her and gouging her eyes.
Judge J.M. Malik also fined him 5,000 rupees (€89).
"I want severe punishment for the rapist," the woman, whose name must be withheld, told reporters, hiding her face with a blue scarf, outside the court before the sentencing. "I have said in my statement whatever I was to say."
Bhura was convicted last month of raping and seriously injuring the 22-year-old nurse in September 2003 at the hospital where they both worked.
The man was arrested after the rape in a bathroom of one of the private rooms in the hospital.
The woman suffered a gouged eye and facial scarring, for which she has undergone surgery four times.
Bhura, who pleaded innocent, had told the court he was now a reformed man and ready to marry the woman because no one else would.
Rape victims are often ostracised in deeply conservative India and the stigma means many cases are never reported.
Rights groups are furious.
"The accused's offer is humiliating, insulting and lowers the dignity of the victim," Kirti Singh, a lawyer and convenor of the All-India Democratic Women's Association, said before sentencing.
"It is totally outrageous that the victim should have been asked if she was willing to consider the offer."
Another leading activist, Brinda Karat, said: "Courts of this country are not marriage bureaus for rape criminals."
Bhura had faced between seven years and life in jail.
