December 16 gangrape case: Supreme Court reserves order on plea challenging death penalty to convicts

The convicts in the case appealed against the Judgement of Delhi High Court which considered the crime committed by them 'rarest of the rare' and awarded them the death penalty.

Author: Ravi Kaushal

Published: March 27, 2017, 4:39 PM IST

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https://www.india.com/news/india/december-16-gangrape-case-supreme-court-reserves-order-on-plea-challenging-death-penalty-to-convicts-1966175/ Copy

New Delhi, March 27: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order in the Nirbhaya gangrape case on the petition filed challenging the death sentence to convicts. The matter is being heard by a three-judge bench including Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan. The convicts in the case appealed against the judgement of Delhi High Court which considered the crime committed by them ‘rarest of the rare’ and awarded them death penalty.

In an earlier development, the Supreme Court accepted the plea filed by amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran, which argued that the convicts were not given appropriate chances to represent their cases. He said that there was a violation of procedure with regard to the sentencing of the convicts – Akshay, Pawan, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh. The accused were asked to file their affidavits by February 23.

In December last year, amicus curiae Sanjay Hegde questioned the evidence produced by the prosecution in the gangrape case and came out with certain points putting a question on the merit of evidence. According to Hegde, one of the convicts, Mukesh, was not with the prime culprit Ram Singh when the offence was committed since their mobile locations were found to be different on that night.

The case also witnessed the suicide of the main accused Ram Singh in the Tihar jail. Similarly, another accused who was juvenile at the time of crime has already been convicted in August last year. The court awarded him a maximum sentence of three years in a reform house.

In December 2012, six people gang raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in a moving bus in Delhi. The girl succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.

The rape case also stormed the streets of Delhi with protesters demanding women’s safety in the capital city. After a long deadlock, the central government agreed to form a committee which revisited the laws related to the rape in India. The committee led by Justice JS Verma recommended a new law for the country.