Parents of Delhi gang rape victim call for death penalty for killers Judge Yogesh Khanna said Mukesh Singh, 26, Vinay Sharma, 20, Akshay Thakur, 28, and Pawan Gupta, 19, had murdered a "helpless victim" and that their use of an iron rod proved they had intended to kill her. "There were no mitigating circumstances for committing this inhuman and brutal attack on the victim," he said. Tuesday's verdict provoked violent protests outside the court by demonstrators demanding the death penalty. The young victim's parents and the friend who was with her when she was attacked said they remain haunted by the incident and could find "no closure." Her father told The Telegraph his family had hoped that all of those responsible for his daughter's torture and killing would be hung, but that the lighter sentence given to the juvenile meant they will never find peace. "If all five were hung it would be the end but it won't be like that because we will still have to strive for justice after her death," he said on the eve of the verdict. The friend, who like the victim's father has not been named to protect her identity, echoed her family's demand for the death penalty and spoke of his feelings of guilt that he could not save her. They wanted us to die. Now, I want them to die and she also wanted them to die... She wanted them to be set on fire," he said in an interview with AFP. He also spoke about their relationship and the plans they had made for the future when she was fighting to survive in hospital. I would ask her about the new clothes she bought with me and make plans about things we would do when she recovered. Those plans died with her. She was cool, funny, mischievous had a great presence of mind. She could make anyone smile and maybe that is the reason why every Indian was angry and sad when she died," he said. For him however, the "guilt will always remain." The court had earlier heard how the men who killed her had been drinking heavily in the Ravidass Camp slum in South Delhi when they decided they would go out in their bus and "pick up a female passenger to have sex with and make merry." Police said the gang leader, Ram Singh, 32, had told them they had also intended to kill their victim so that their crimes would "not come to light." They later found their victim and her friend in Delhi's Munirka neighbourhood where they were trying to hail a rickshaw after watching Life of Pi at a smart shopping mall cinema. The four adults will learn their fate on Wednesday when the judge will sentence them either to death or life imprisonment. Mrinal Satish, assistant professor of law at India's National Judicial Academy, said the judge must be sure there is no possibility of the men being reformed before giving the death penalty. He must also explain why the case is among the "rarest of the rare." Lawyers for the men on Tuesday confirmed they would appeal the verdict, saying they had been falsely convicted under public and government pressure. "It's injustice," the father of Ram and Mukesh Singh, Mangi Lal, said. My first son was killed in jail and the other one has fraudulently been held guilty.