Nirbhaya gangrape: Supreme Court gives death sentence to four convicts
The Supreme Court Friday upheld the death sentence of the four convicted in the Delhi’s Nirbhaya case. The death sentence was earlier awarded by Delhi High Court.
The bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan heard the plea by the four convicts – Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.
The Supreme Court has said that the criminal conspiracy allegations stand established against the accused.
Justice Dipak Misra observed in its order that it’s a story of ‘some different world’.
The dying declaration of the victim is also consistent, the apex court said.
“Taking the serious injuries, the severe nature of offence committed by the convicts, we are upholding the sentence,” said the order said.
The 23-year-old paramedic was brutally assaulted and raped by six persons in a moving bus in south Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle with her male friend on the night of December 16, 2012.
The Delhi High Court, in its verdict on March 13, 2014, had observed that their offence fell in the rarest of the rare category and had upheld the death sentence awarded to them by the trial court.
The trial court had also awarded death penalty to the four convicts. Prime accused Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in his cell in Tihar jail in March 2013 and proceedings against him were abated.
The four convicts had approached the Supreme Court against the high court’s order which had confirmed the death penalty awarded to them by the trial court.
During the hearing, advocates A P Singh and M L Sharma, representing the four convicts, had said they should be given a chance to reform and considering the mitigating factors, the court should not award them death penalty. They also raised questions about the evidence collected by the police in the matter.
Six men, including the four convicts, were found guilty of brutally raping a 23-year old physiotherapist inside a bus on December 16, 2012. The victim succumbed to injuries 13 days later in a hospital in Singapore. One of the primary suspects, Ram Singh, was found hanging inside a prison cell in Tihar jail in March 2013, while another suspect, a juvenile at the time of the crime, was given a sentence of 3 years inside a juvenile home.
KV Correspondent
