Delhi Gang Rape Case – Nirbhaya (State v Ram Singh).The four convicts in the Delhi gang-rape of December 16 have been awarded death penalty..The judgment was delivered a few minutes back by Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna in Court Room no. 304 at the Saket District Court Complex in South Delhi. The decision was welcomed with loud cheers and applause by the scribes and public who had gathered in large numbers in anticipation of the verdict. Police had barricaded the road leading up to the Court complex and tightened the security apprehending untoward incidents from the crowd gathered outside shouting slogans and demanding death penalty for the convicts. The sentencing brings an end to the 7-month long judicial process which had been fast-tracked in the wake of protests across the country..The Court had earlier pronounced all the four guilty of gang rape and murder and subsequently heard the arguments on sentencing before reserving its verdict on the quantum of punishment..When the arguments on sentencing took place on September 11, the prosecution had sought death penalty for all the four accused bracketing it as a ‘rarest of the rare’ case. Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan had argued that the brutal manner in which the crime was committed warranted nothing less than death penalty for the accused..The defense counsels had, however, vehemently pleaded against death penalty. Besides citing the economic backgrounds of the accused, their clean antecedents and willingness to reform and their co-operation during trial, the counsels also went on to rely on Gandhian and Buddhist principles while arguing against the imposition of death penalty..Relying on a plethora of judgments, the Court turned down the plea of the accused for a lighter sentence. Holding that the “offence in the present case has been committed in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting and thus dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of society” the Court went on to state that .“the facts show that entire intestine of the prosecutrix was perforated, splayed and cut open due to repeated insertions of rods and hands. The convicts, in the most barbaric manner, pulled out her internal organs with their bare hands as well as by the rods and caused her irreparable injuries, thus exhibiting extreme mental perversion not worthy of human condonation. As convict in pursuance of their conspiracy lured the victims into the bus Ex. P-1, brutally gang raped the prosecutrix, inflicted inhuman torture and threw the defenceless victims out of the moving bus in naked condition, profusely bleeding in a cold winter night ; their unprovoked crime demonstrated exceptional depravity of mind of the convicts.”.and held that .“the subjecting of the prosecutrix to inhuman acts of torture before her death had not only shocked the collective conscience but calls for the withdrawal of the protective arm of the community around the convicts. This ghastly act of the convicts definitely fits this case in the bracket of rarest of rare cases.”.Of the four accused, Mukesh, the brother of main accused Ram Singh, is a native of Karauli in Rajasthan. He intermittently drove taxis for a living. Akshay Thakur hailed from Patna and was working as an assistant in Ram Singh’s bus. Pawan Gupta, who is 19 years old, belonged to Basti in Uttar Pradesh and was a fruit seller who lived in Ram Singh’s and Mukesh’s neighbourhood. Vinay Sharma was a cleaner cum instructor in a gym..On the fateful day of December 16, 2012, the four along with the main accused Ram Singh and the juvenile accused had taken out the bus for a ‘joyride’ as was the routine on Sunday evenings. The bus, which was used to transport school children, was also used for such unlicensed trips in which rides were offered to people waiting for public transport late in the evening. The first passenger was a carpenter by the name of Ram Adhar who was beaten up and robbed of his belongings before being thrown out in the cold night..The accused had then put up a clever masquerade with three of them posing as passengers in the bus when the victim and her friend, who were trying to get to Dwarka, were lured into the bus by the juvenile at the Munirka bus stop. The accused then beat up the victim’s friend before unleashing the vicious episode of violence on her. The two were then thrown out of the bus naked in the chilly December night. The accused allegedly tried to run the victim over but she was pulled to safety by her friend. They lay freezing and bleeding for about 40 minutes before the police came to the rescue. The victim succumbed to her injuries two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore..The main accused Ram Singh had committed suicide in the Tihar jail while the juvenile accused was sentenced to 3 years at a reform home..The Delhi gang rape had sparked strong reactions across the country and had attracted international attention reaffirming the country’s notorious attitude towards women. Amendment to penal laws subsequent to the incident and stronger policing seem to have had little effect in curbing sexual crimes against women..The decision of the Additional Sessions Judge would be subject to confirmation by the Delhi High Court.
Delhi Gang Rape Case – Nirbhaya (State v Ram Singh).The four convicts in the Delhi gang-rape of December 16 have been awarded death penalty..The judgment was delivered a few minutes back by Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna in Court Room no. 304 at the Saket District Court Complex in South Delhi. The decision was welcomed with loud cheers and applause by the scribes and public who had gathered in large numbers in anticipation of the verdict. Police had barricaded the road leading up to the Court complex and tightened the security apprehending untoward incidents from the crowd gathered outside shouting slogans and demanding death penalty for the convicts. The sentencing brings an end to the 7-month long judicial process which had been fast-tracked in the wake of protests across the country..The Court had earlier pronounced all the four guilty of gang rape and murder and subsequently heard the arguments on sentencing before reserving its verdict on the quantum of punishment..When the arguments on sentencing took place on September 11, the prosecution had sought death penalty for all the four accused bracketing it as a ‘rarest of the rare’ case. Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan had argued that the brutal manner in which the crime was committed warranted nothing less than death penalty for the accused..The defense counsels had, however, vehemently pleaded against death penalty. Besides citing the economic backgrounds of the accused, their clean antecedents and willingness to reform and their co-operation during trial, the counsels also went on to rely on Gandhian and Buddhist principles while arguing against the imposition of death penalty..Relying on a plethora of judgments, the Court turned down the plea of the accused for a lighter sentence. Holding that the “offence in the present case has been committed in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting and thus dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of society” the Court went on to state that .“the facts show that entire intestine of the prosecutrix was perforated, splayed and cut open due to repeated insertions of rods and hands. The convicts, in the most barbaric manner, pulled out her internal organs with their bare hands as well as by the rods and caused her irreparable injuries, thus exhibiting extreme mental perversion not worthy of human condonation. As convict in pursuance of their conspiracy lured the victims into the bus Ex. P-1, brutally gang raped the prosecutrix, inflicted inhuman torture and threw the defenceless victims out of the moving bus in naked condition, profusely bleeding in a cold winter night ; their unprovoked crime demonstrated exceptional depravity of mind of the convicts.”.and held that .“the subjecting of the prosecutrix to inhuman acts of torture before her death had not only shocked the collective conscience but calls for the withdrawal of the protective arm of the community around the convicts. This ghastly act of the convicts definitely fits this case in the bracket of rarest of rare cases.”.Of the four accused, Mukesh, the brother of main accused Ram Singh, is a native of Karauli in Rajasthan. He intermittently drove taxis for a living. Akshay Thakur hailed from Patna and was working as an assistant in Ram Singh’s bus. Pawan Gupta, who is 19 years old, belonged to Basti in Uttar Pradesh and was a fruit seller who lived in Ram Singh’s and Mukesh’s neighbourhood. Vinay Sharma was a cleaner cum instructor in a gym..On the fateful day of December 16, 2012, the four along with the main accused Ram Singh and the juvenile accused had taken out the bus for a ‘joyride’ as was the routine on Sunday evenings. The bus, which was used to transport school children, was also used for such unlicensed trips in which rides were offered to people waiting for public transport late in the evening. The first passenger was a carpenter by the name of Ram Adhar who was beaten up and robbed of his belongings before being thrown out in the cold night..The accused had then put up a clever masquerade with three of them posing as passengers in the bus when the victim and her friend, who were trying to get to Dwarka, were lured into the bus by the juvenile at the Munirka bus stop. The accused then beat up the victim’s friend before unleashing the vicious episode of violence on her. The two were then thrown out of the bus naked in the chilly December night. The accused allegedly tried to run the victim over but she was pulled to safety by her friend. They lay freezing and bleeding for about 40 minutes before the police came to the rescue. The victim succumbed to her injuries two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore..The main accused Ram Singh had committed suicide in the Tihar jail while the juvenile accused was sentenced to 3 years at a reform home..The Delhi gang rape had sparked strong reactions across the country and had attracted international attention reaffirming the country’s notorious attitude towards women. Amendment to penal laws subsequent to the incident and stronger policing seem to have had little effect in curbing sexual crimes against women..The decision of the Additional Sessions Judge would be subject to confirmation by the Delhi High Court.
