New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS): A court here Wednesday awarded death penalty to three men convicted in the rape-murder of a 19-year-old woman in 2012, and observed that the crime committed by them shakes the conscience of society.

The court Feb 13 convicted Ravi Kumar, Rahul and Vinod on various charges dealing with kidnapping, rape and murder.

Awarding death sentence to the three men, Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat observed that the case falls under the "rarest of rare" category.

"The convicts shall be hanged till death," the judge said, noting that the convicts were involved in two distinct heinous offence calling for the capital punishment.

"The perpetrators of crimes like rape and murder forfeit their right to live. The life imprisonment is highly inadequate in these cases and there is no alternative but to impose death sentence," the court said.

The court observed that in the recent past society has seen a steep increase in the incidents of sexual assault on woman, particularly minor girls.

It said the time has come when the courts should deal with such heinous crime sternly in order to send a strong message to the society.

The prosecution said the convicts committed a barbaric act as they first kidnapped the woman, raped her and then killed her. They then dumped her body in a field in Rodhai village in Haryana's Rewari district.

The prosecution said the woman was kidnapped by the three men in a car from near her house in Qutub Vihar area on the night of Feb 9, 2012, while she was returning from her office.

The woman's body had multiple injuries on head and other parts, the prosecution said.

Police said the three men had assaulted the woman with a car jack and an earthen pot.

Ravi Kumar committed the crime with the help of the other two convicts as he was outraged over the woman's refusal to his friendship proposal, police said.