Court Upholds Death Penalty For 7 In Haryana's "Nirbhaya-Like Case" (Chandigarh)

All India | Written by Mohammed Ghazali | Updated: March 20, 2019 01:54 IST

The gang had raped and murdered a mentally challenged woman before dumping her body in a deserted part of Akbarpur village along the Rohtak-Hisar road.

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court today upheld the death penalty for seven people convicted in the rape and murder of a 27-year-old mentally challenged woman in Haryana's Rohtak over four years ago. Terming the murder-rape as a "Nirbhaya-like incident", the special division bench comprising Justices AB Chaudhari and Surinder Gupta not only dismissed the petitions filed by the convicts but also increased the fine imposed on them from Rs. 1.75 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh. The money can be recovered by attaching or selling immovable properties such as their houses and agricultural land, it ruled. 

After raping and murdering the woman on February 1, 2015, the gang had dumped her body in a deserted part of Akbarpur village along the Rohtak-Hisar road. Doctors recovered stones and razor blades from her stomach during the post-mortem examination. On December 21, 2015, Additional District and Sessions Judge Seema Singhal sentenced the seven people arrested in the case to death. She also imposed a fine of Rs. 1.75 lakh on each on them. While a minor arrested in the case is being tried in a juvenile court, a ninth suspect has committed suicide.

In the verdict passed today, Justice AB Chaudhari expressed the hope that imposition of the enhanced fine will prove to be an additional deterrent for potential criminals. Of the proceeds gained from the sale of their properties, half would go to the state while the remaining would be handed over to the victim's sister. The bench also praised the investigation officer, Sub-Inspector Mohammad Ilias, for the professionalism he showed in probing the case. "It is up to the government to award him now," it said. 

By the Nirbhaya case, the judges were referring to the gangrape and fatal assault of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student by six people on a bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died in a Singapore hospital 13 days later. The incident led to massive protests against the government for its alleged failure to provide adequate security to women in the national capital. All the accused in the case were arrested and charged. While four of them were sentenced to death, a fifth died in prison. The sixth convict, a minor, was sent to a juvenile remand home and released after his sentence was completed three years later.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rohtak-rape-murder-court-upholds-death-penalty-for-7-in-haryanas-nirbhaya-like-case-2010081 (accessed on 29 May 2019)

2012 Delhi gangrape case: Victim’s parents want immediate execution of death row convicts (New Delhi)

By Express Web Desk |New Delhi |Updated: February 14, 2019 4:44:27 pm

Last year in December (2018), the Supreme Court had dismissed a Public Interest Litigation urging expedition of the procedure to hang the accused.

The parents of the 2012 Delhi gangrape victim on Thursday approached a Delhi court, seeking direction on the immediate execution of four death row convicts in the case. The court has slated the hearing for March 2. Last year in December, the Supreme Court had dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) urging expedition of the procedure to hang the accused. The PIL filed by lawyer Alakh Alok Srivasatava had sought direction from the central government to execute all the four death row convicts within two weeks.

A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta later asked the petitioner, “What kind of prayer are you making?” It further said, “You are making the court a joke.” On July 9, 2018, the apex court had upheld its verdict of awarding the death penalty to the convicts in the December 2012 gangrape case. A three-judge bench had also rejected the review pleas filed by the three – Mukesh (31), Pawan Gupta (24) and Vinay Sharma (25) – of the four convicts. The apex court said the death row convicts failed to point out “error apparent on the face of the record” in the judgment.

In January this year, the top court asked the fourth convict to soon file his plea seeking review of its verdict upholding the death sentence awarded to him, saying the court “cannot wait” for long. A paramedical student was gang-raped and brutally assaulted by six men in a private bus and thrown out of it along with her friend. The victim was admitted to a South Delhi hospital. The victim later succumbed to her injuries.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/2012-delhi-gangrape-case-parents-move-patiala-house-court-immediate-execution-5584020/ (Accessed 19 February 2019)

Nirbhaya rapists will hang: Supreme Court rejects review plea, upholds 3 convicts' death penalty (Delhi)

Updated: Jul 9, 2018, 03:08 PM IST

Nirbhaya rapists will hang, ruled the Supreme Court as it upheld the death penalty of the three convicts in the six-year-old gangrape and murder case. (DECEMBER 16 CASE: TIMELINE)

The top court rejected the review petitions filed by the convicts in the brutal December 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case today. The top court said that it will exercise its review jurisdiction only when there are apparent errors resulting in miscarriage of justice. Convicts cannot be allowed to re-argue their case under the garb of review petition, the Bench of CJI Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Banumathi noted. The apex court had on May 4 reserved its order on the review petitions filed by the convicts-- Pawan Gupta(31), Vinay Sharma (25), and Mukesh Singh (31).

A three-judge bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and also comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Bhanumathi, will pronounce the verdict in the case. The fourth convict, Akshay Thakur (33) has not filed a review petition yet. The apex court had however in the last hearing, granted three weeks time to Akshay to file his review petition in the case. According to the prosecution, the 23-year-old paramedical student was assaulted and raped by six persons in a moving bus in South Delhi and thrown out with her male friend on the night of December 16, 2012. She subsequently died during the treatment at a Singapore hospital on December 29 the same year.

Out of the six convicts, prime accused Ram Singh had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar jail in 2013 during the trial of the case. Another accused was found out by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) as a minor and sentenced him to three years term at a probation home. Saket's Fast track Court on September 13, 2013 pronounced death sentence to all the four convicts. The trial court then referred the case to the Delhi High Court for confirmation of their death sentence. The Delhi High Court had on January 2017, reserved its verdict on confirming the death sentence and appeals of the four convicts. The Supreme Court had on May 5, last year, upheld the Delhi High court order of death penalty to the four convicts. Following which, the three convicts appealed before the Supreme Court for reviewing its order of sentencing them to the gallows. 

Source: https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-nirbhaya-rapists-will-hang-supreme-court-rejects-review-plea-upholds-3-convicts-death-penalty-2635102 (Accessed 25 December 2018)

Death sentence is against human rights, give us a chance to reform: Nirbhaya death convict to SC (Delhi)

Amit Anand Choudhary 

TNN | May 4, 2018, 10.26 PM IST 

NEW DELHI: Pleading for life and mercy, two death convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case told the Supreme Court that capital punishment is violative of basic human rights and requested the court to give them a chance to reform themselves by commuting their sentence to life imprisonment.

Appearing before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, advocate A P Singh pleaded the bench to show compassion towards the convicts in view of their socio-economic background and their clean criminal record before the incident. Singh, who was appearing on behalf of convicts Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta, said that many habitual offenders had reformed over the time and his clients should also get a chance by converting their death sentence to life imprisonment. He said that death sentence was against Indian culture of non-violence and tolerance. He told the bench that even a hardcore criminal like Phoolan Devi, who killed 27 person in a day, got reformed and became a member of Parliament. 

The court, after a brief hearing, reserved its verdict and asked the lawyer to file his written submission. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Delhi Police, said the convicts had not raised any new ground which was dealt with by the apex court while delivering its verdict upholding their death sentence. The Supreme Court had on May 5 last year awarded death sentence to four convicts in the case saying that the brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature of the crime shook the conscience of humanity and they deserved the extreme punishment. 

The court held Vinay Sharma (23), Akshay Thakur (31), Mukesh (29) and Pawan Gupta (22) guilty and awarded the death sentence to them saying it was a rarest of rare case. The 23-year-old paramedic, on the night of December 16, 2012, was brutally assaulted and gangraped in a moving bus in south Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle with her male friend. She later died in a Singapore hospital on December 29. The trial court had awarded them death sentence in September 2013 and six moths thereafter, the Delhi High Court on March 13, 2014 upheld their conviction and sentence. All the convicts then approached the Supreme Court which had in 2014 stayed their execution. 

Upholding the verdict of trial court and HC, the Supreme Court had said, “It is manifest that the wanton lust, the servility to absolutely unchained carnal desire and slavery to the loathsome beastility of passion ruled the mindset of the appellants to commit a crime which can summon with immediacy tsunami of shock in the mind of the collective and destroy the civilised marrows of the milieu in entirety.”

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/death-sentence-is-against-human-rights-give-us-a-chance-to-reform-nirbhaya-death-convict-to-supreme-court/articleshowprint/64034328.cms (Accessed 24 December 2018)

Nirbhaya Gangrape: Convict Mukesh Files Review Petition In SC Against Death Sentence (Delhi)

OUTLOOK WEB BUREAU 12 NOVEMBER 2017 

The Supreme Court will hear a review petition of one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape case tomorrow.

The review petition was moved through Advocate ML Sharma, by Mukesh, who is one of the four convicts sentenced to death. In May, a Supreme court bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra and consisting of Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, had upheld the High Court's order of death sentence to the four convicts - Akshay, Pawan, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh.

On December 16, 2012, six people gangraped a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in a moving bus. The woman succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012. One of the accused, Ram Singh hanged himself in prison, while another person, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August last year and will serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home. (ANI)

Source: https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/nirbhaya-gangrape-convict-mukesh-files-review-petition-in-sc-against-death-sente/304233 (Accessed 23 December 2018)

How many more Nirbhayas? Despite Supreme Court's death sentence, rapists run amok in Rohtak (Harayana)

May 13, 2017

Barely a week after Supreme Court sent the four men who gangraped and brutalised Nirbhaya to the gallows, Rohtak district in Haryana witnessed a gorier crime than the one that was committed on December 16, 2012 in Delhi. 

A young girl was abducted, taken to a secluded place and allegedly gangraped by several persons. Her mutilated body was found on May 11. A police investigation revealed that the girl was abducted when she was on her way to work on May 9. She lived with her parents in neighbouring Sonepat district of Haryana. When she did not come back home, her parents lodged a missing complaint with the police. 

Police were stunned to see the state of the victim's body, which bore several injury mar Sharp-edged objects had been inserted into the private parts of the victim. Her head ha smashed. A vehicle had been run over her. The perpetrators of the crime also tried to disfigure her to hide her identity. 

How many more Nirbhayas before India's netas wake up?

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/video/rohtak-gangrape-nirbhaya-supreme-court-847522-2017-05-13 (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Indian Supreme Court upholds death sentences in Delhi gang rape

By Huizhong Wu, CNN

Updated 1841 GMT (0241 HKT) May 5, 2017

New Delhi (CNN)Four men convicted of a gang rape that shocked India and attracted worldwide attention will be executed.

Four convicts in the Delhi Gang-Rape, 2013

India's Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court's decision to sentence the men to death. The judgment met with applause in the courtroom, according to CNN affiliate News18. "We are very happy that (the) Supreme Court has heard our voice, and that they understood Nirbhaya's pain in this matter, and that along with Nirbhaya the whole country has found justice," the victim's father, Badrinath Singh, told reporters outside the court, using a nickname for his daughter that means "fearless one." "We need to work so that the type of crime that happened to Nirbhaya will not happen again," Asha Singh, the victim's mother, said at a press briefing.

Parents of Nirbhaya, who was gangraped on December 16, 2012

"This fight is not ours alone. This is every man's fight. This is everyone's fight. This is every woman's fight." Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh were originally sentenced in September 2013, but they appealed the decision in the country's top court. Another perpetrator was underage at the time and received a lesser sentence, while a sixth attacker died in prison. The case led to protests across India and intense media coverage around the world, shining a light on India's pervasive problem of sexual violence against women. Executions are rare in India. While hundreds of people were sentenced to death last year, only three executions have been carried out since 2007, according to Amnesty International. 

Horrific crime

On the evening of December 16, 2012, Jyoti Singh Pandey, a physiotherapy student in Delhi, was leaving a movie theater after watching "The Life of Pi" with a male friend. It was late when they left the theater, so the pair got on a private bus to go to their suburban homes. That was when their nightmare started. According to police, the bus driver and at least five other men were drunk and looking for a "joy ride." Police said the men took turns raping the woman, using an iron rod to violate her as the bus drove around the city for almost an hour. Her male companion was beaten as he tried to fight them off. When they had finished, the men dumped their two victims by the side of the road.

Following the ordeal, the woman's injuries were so severe some internal organs had to be removed. She died two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore. "I want them burned alive," the dying victim told her mother and a visiting magistrate who was recording her statement at the hospital. 

Fight for justice

In the days following the rape, police arrested and jailed six men. Thousands of Indians marched in protest at the crime across the nation's capital and in cities around the country. The outrage pushed India's government to set up the Justice Verma Committee to come up with legal solutions to reduce sexual violence. It also passed laws setting stricter penalties for these types of crime and set up a fund in honor of the victim. But justice has not been a straight and easy path.

(Late) Justice J.S. Verma

India today

Though the case sparked widespread calls for reform in India, according to government records, there was an increase of 50% in the number of reported rapes in the past five years, to 34,000 in 2015. Experts said the increase was likely caused by a broadening of the definition of what constitutes rape, and more openness about reporting attacks. However, many warn the figures are still likely an underestimation. The Delhi gang rape case was an outlier in that the victim did not know the perpetrators. Of reported rapes, according to official statistics, 95% were committed by someone known to the victim. Activists and policy makers have expressed frustration at the lack of progress, saying there is no political will to move forward on the issue. "There hasn't been the push needed to implement these laws at the state level," Aruna Kashyap, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch, told CNN in January. "The overall response to women's safety is rooted in protectionism -- keep them at home, keep them safe -- rather than create spaces that are safe and equal."

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/05/asia/india-gang-rape-death-penalty/ (Accessed 23 December 2018)

He deserved death sentence, say Akshay’s family members (Nirbhaya - Delhi)

Patna, May 5 (IANS) Akshay, a convict in the fatal 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student, deserved the death sentence, his family members said after the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for him and three others in the case on Friday.

“We have ended our relationship with him; Akshay is no more our family member; we have nothing to do with him,” a close family member told IANS over telephone from Lahang Karma village in Aurangabad district, about 150 km from here. “Please, we do not want to talk about him, he is our past, not present,” said another family member, as most of the family members of Akshay termed the apex court’s decision “right”. People in his village refused to talk about him as he brought disrepute to the village. “Our village was defamed due to Akshay’s involvement in the infamous case. We don’t want to discuss anything to defame our village any further,” Satender Kumar Singh, a villager said.

However, according to a neighbour of Akshay’s family, the entire family and some relatives were glued to the television set on Friday, “hoping against all hope that the apex court would overturn the death penalty.” “They were hopeful against all hope for some relief. It proved useless as Akshay’s fate was sealed the day he was convicted. The apex court only upheld it,” a villager said. The four — Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur — were convicted for raping and assaulting the 23-year-old paramedical student inside a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012. The rapists, six in all, pounced on the young woman who had boarded the bus with her boyfriend to go home after seeing a movie “Life of Pi”.

The four convicts in Delhi gang-rape, 2012

As the bus moved on south Delhi roads, the convicts pulled out her internal organs with a rusted L-shaped iron rod used with a wheel jack. This led to her death due to internal injuries 13 days later in a Singapore hospital. After committing the crime, they dumped the woman and her friend on the side of a road. Some onlookers alerted the police. The sheer brutality of the crime led to nationwide revulsion and street protests. A fifth accused, Ram Singh, committed suicide in Tihar Central Jail in the national capital. The sixth, a juvenile, who was accused of ripping apart the woman’s intestines, was sent to a correction home and has been released after serving his probation period.

Source: https://www.india.com/news/agencies/he-deserved-death-sentence-say-akshays-family-members-2103105/ (Accessed 23 December 2018)