SCORES of protesters took to the streets in Indian capital New Delhi on Sunday to protest the release of a juvenile convicted in the fatal 2012 gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving bus that shook the country.

    The man, who was short of his 18th birthday when he and five others attacked the woman, was to finish his three-year term in a reform home.

    Several activists and politicians have demanded that he not be released until it can be proven that he has been reformed. The protesters were led by the parents of the woman who was attacked.

    On Friday, the Delhi High Court rejected a petition to extend the man’s term, saying that he has served the maximum sentence under the law.

    News reports said the convict was moved Sunday from the reform home where he had been kept to a new home under the care of a children’s rights group. Phone calls to the police went unanswered.

    The brutality of the December 2012 attack in the heart of New Delhi shocked this country of 1.2 billion, where sexual violence is rampant.

    In response to the attack and the widespread protests it provoked, India’s government rushed through legislation doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalizing voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. (SD-Agencies)