Nirbhaya case: Supreme Court upholds previous decision, awards death sentence to rapists

In 2012, after a 23-year-old paramedic student was brutally gang-raped by six men in a moving bus on the roads of Delhi, all eyes were on the Supreme Court on Monday as they dismissed the review petition filed by three of the four convicts awarded death penalty in the case. A three-judge bench pronounced its judgement on the petitions filed by Pawan Gupta (22), Mukesh (29) and Vinay Sharma (23) at around 2:20 pm. Akshay Thakur (31), the fourth death row convict, did not file a review plea.

Also Read: SC to decide today: Will Nirbhaya rapists be spared or hanged?

One of the accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly hanged himself in the Tihar jail.The sixth accused, who was a juvenile at that time, was found guilty by a juvenile justice board. He served a three-year term and subsequently released from a reformation home. The SC had on May 05, 2017, upheld the decision by the Delhi High Court and the trial court to award death penalty to all the four convicts in the brutal gang-rape and murder case that shook India. However, as per Akshay Thakur’s advocate AP Singh, they will be filing a review petition. The victim’s mother said that this judgement was justice for all. For five and half years, several women activists and organisations had pushed the SC to fast track the case and punish them in accordance. However, the rapists will not be hanged immediately as they have been left with two more appeals.