Death sentence for rogue Indian bus driver

A rogue Indian bus driver who killed nine people in a rampage through the crowded streets of the southern city of Pune last year was sentenced to death on Monday, a report said.
Thirty-year-old Santosh Mane took the bus from a depot last January and then sped through the city, crashing into motorists, pedestrians and foodstalls during a terrifying 30-minute wrecking spree in the morning rush-hour.
During the trial, the driver's lawyer and family pleaded that he was "mentally unstable", but the judge dismissed their arguments and found the crime justified the death penalty.
"The accused has committed the murder of nine persons by moving the bus dangerously with the intention and knowledge that the act was so eminently dangerous that it will cause death or bodily harm," the Press Trust of India agency quoted the judge as saying.
Mane, a licensed driver of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, was convicted last week of murder, attempted murder and damage to property by the court in Pune.