Nirbhaya Case: Supreme Court shows no mercy to convicts, upholds High Court verdict

Six years after the brutal 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, the Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on the review petitions filed by three of the four convicts awarded death penalty in the ‘Nirbhaya’ gang rape and murder case on Monday.

Three of the four convicts - Mukesh (29), Pawan Gupta (22) and Vinay Sharma (23) - had filed review petitions against the apex court’s May 5, 2017 judgment.

However, the fourth convict - Akshay Kumar Singh (31), had not filed any review plea against the apex court's verdict awarding them death penalty for their inhuman act.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and also comprising Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan was expected to deliver its judgment on the review petitions. 

The advocate AP Singh, who was representing the fourth convict Akshay said that his client had not filed a review petition in the case but he will also file it.

In its 2017 verdict, the apex court had upheld the Delhi High Court and the trial court's verdict of the capital punishment awarded to them in the case of gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student on December 16, 2012 in Delhi.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court had said that the “brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature” of the crime could create a “tsunami of shock” to destroy a civilised society.

The victim, who was given the pseudonym of 'Nirbhaya' (the one who has no fear) was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in South Delhi by six persons. IN the inhuman and brutal assault, the rapists had inserted an iron rod into her genitals and pulled her uterus out.

She later succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar jail in Delhi.

A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

(With PTI inputs)