Supreme Court awards death to 4 convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape case
TIA NEWS
The Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence on all four convicts in the brutal Nirbhaya gang-rape here of December 2012 that led to her death and caused national outrage.
Upholding the deal sentence, three-member bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice R. Banumathi said the aggravating circumstances against Mukesh, Pawan, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur far outweighed the mitigating circumstances cited in their favour.
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.
Describing crime of “mental perversion and extreme brutality” where in the entire intestine of the victim was “perforated” in “most savage and inhuman manner”, Justice Misra also speaking for Justice Bhushan said that it is a story from different world where there is irreverence for human beings.
Justice Banumathi in a separate but concurring judgment said that if this case don’t deserve death penalty , don’t know which one deserves better.
The case definitely meets the rarest of rare benchmark, the bench said. “If ever a case called for hanging, this was it.”
The four were convicted on charges of raping and assaulting a 23-year-old paramedical student inside a bus that led to her death and triggered nationwide protests. Fifth accused committed suicide in prison while a sixth, a juvenile, has been released after serving his probation period in a remand home.
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.
Earlier today, the parents of the victim said they are sure that the apex court will award death sentence to the guilty.
Justice Dipak Misra is known to be non-hesitate when it comes to awarding death sentences and is exceedingly sensitive to women’s rights and liberties.