The Supreme Court confirmed death sentence to all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case which shook the entire nation. A three-judge bench, through a unanimous verdict, upheld the judgement of Delhi High Court.
The Judgement’s Part146 termed the crime as “rarest of rare”, “barbaric” and held, “If at all there is a case warranting award of death sentence, it is the present case”.
The four convicts, Mukesh Singh(27), Pawan Gupta(20), Vinay Sharma(21) and Akshay Thakur (29) were found guilty in the most brutal and barbaric attack on the 23-year-old paramedic student Jyoti Singh. The bench comprising of Justices Dipak Misra, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan said that the offence created “tsunami of shock”
After almost five years ago Jyoti Singh was raped on 16 December, 2012, and died of injuries 13 days later. The victim’s father Badri Nath Singh expressing satisfaction over the judgement said that he will finally sleep peacefully tonight. The parents have started a “Nirbhaya Jyoti Trust” to help rape survivors and also stressed that their daughter should be identified by her name. Jyoti’s mother Asha Devi thanked everyone for the support and targeting politicians said “I have never heard any politician say anything positive about women. They need to change their mentality.”
Advocate AP Singh, who was the defence counsel for two of the four convicts said that Supreme Court has bowed to public pressure in confirming the death sentence and said a review petition would be filed. Advocate ML Sharma on behalf of Mukesh Singh is also likely to file a review petition
In 2013, a trial court had ruled death sentence to all five convicts, except the juvenile. The verdict was upheld by the Delhi High Court. Ram Singh the prime accused, was found hanging in Tihar Jail in March 2013. At the time of the crime, the sixth accused was a minor, so was granted three years in a correction facility by Juvenile Justice Board.
Ministry of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said that the judgement will act as a “deterrent” against such heinous crimes and wished that it had come sooner
The judgement was received with an applause from those in the court.
