Three men were handed out death sentences by an Indian court on Friday, setting forth the beginning of new laws that dictate harsher punishment for those convicted of multiple sexual assaults, BBC News reported.
The first criminals to be tried and convicted under the tough new law, the trio were convicted of raping a photojournalist in Mumbai last year.
However, the same three men were also part of a five-member group responsible for raping another woman in a separate incident in the city. All five men were sentenced to life last month.
For those convicted of more than one gang rape, the minimum sentence under the new laws is life in prison. Death is the maximum penalty, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Judge Shalini Phansalkar Joshi announced Friday's sentences at a court in Mumbai.
"There needs to be zero tolerance for such incidents," she said. "A loud and clear message needs to be sent to society," the Agence France-Press reported.
The trials of both the victims, an 18-year-old telephone operator and the photojournalist, were carried out in fast-track courts within seven months of the attacks.
"The 22-year-old photojournalist, an intern with a Mumbai-based magazine, had gone to the Shakti Mills - a former textile mill that now lies abandoned - with a male colleague on a photo assignment when she was attacked. Her colleague was beaten during the assault," BBC News reported.
The female telephone operator decided to come forward after hearing about the photojournalists' incident. A month earlier, she had been assaulted in the same place.
Since the gang-rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, women's safety in India has been under the spotlight.
Although nationwide protests and the introduction of tougher sexual assault laws were brought forward, an ongoing stream of high-profile attacks has raised concerns that little has changed.
