Nirbhaya gangrape case: Supreme Court decides the 4 convicts will hang

Source – indiatoday.in

The Supreme Court today rejected the plea by four convicts, challenging their death penalty, in the December 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case. The apex court has decided the four convicts will be hanged till death.

Following the Supreme Court verdict, lawyers for the four rapists said they plan to file a review petition to challenge today’s judgement.

The four convicts had challenged the death sentence awarded to them by the Delhi high court, which considered it to be a ‘rarest of rare’ case.

The matter was heard by the apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and consisting of Justices R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.

“On the basis of medical evidence, physical injuries, dying statement, the Supreme Court said this is rarest of the rarest case and thus uphold the High Court judgement,” said BL Kapoor, a lawyer.

The accused were awarded death sentence in September 2013; the sentence was upheld by the Delhi High Court as well in 2014. The four whose fate was decided today are Vinay Sharma, Mukesh, Pawan, and Akshay Thakur.

On December 16, 2012, the 23-year-old physiotherapist was brutally assaulted and raped by six persons, including one juvenile, on a moving bus in South Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle with her male friend on the night of December 16, 2012.

She died days later in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.

One of the accused, Ram Singh hanged himself in prison, while another person, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August last year and will serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.

Meanwhile, the security of the four rapists, who remain incarcerated at Tihar Jail, has been beefed up with the aim of preventing any possible suicide attempts.

Earlier today, the parents of the victim said they are sure that the apex court will award death sentence to the guilty. Following the verdict, the parents express happiness, saying that while justice for their daughter has been delayed, it has not been denied.

Justice Dipak Misra is known to be non-hesitant when it comes to awarding death sentences and is exceedingly sensitive to women’s rights and liberties.

He has upheld rape as depravity and not curable and recently, passed a woman friendly judgement saying that “no woman can be compelled to love; she always has right to say no”.