Nirbhaya gangrape case: Delhi High Court upholds death penalty awarded to four convicts

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the death penalty awarded to four convicts in December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

In September 2013, a Delhi court had awarded death penalty to the four convicts, saying that the gravity of the offence cannot be tolerated. The offence committed by Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20) falls under the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment, the judge had then said.

Besides murder, the four had been also convicted for offences including gangrape, unnatural offences, attempt to murder, dacoity, destruction of evidence, conspiracy, kidnapping or abducting in order to murder, while acquitting them of the charge of murder in dacoity.

On the night of December 16 2012, Ram Singh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and the juvenile had gangraped the girl in a bus after luring her and her 28-year-old male friend, who was also assaulted, on board the vehicle, which was later found to be plying illegally on Delhi roads.

The victim's friend, a software engineer, suffered fractures in his limbs. The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at a Singapore hospital.

Ram Singh (34) was found dead in the prison cell in March and proceedings against were abated.

The incident shook the nation's conscience and sparked massive protests. It prompted a number of steps by the Centre and the Delhi government to ensure safety of women, curb such incidents and facilitate quick disposal of cases.