[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The SC has confirmed death for four convicts in Nirbhaya gang-rape case in Delhi. A 23-year-old student was gang-raped and tortured in a running bus.
New Delhi: The apex court has upheld the lower court judgment awarding death sentence to all the four convicts involved in December 2012 gangrape and murder case.
The Apex Court order was greeted with loud applause in the premises of the court, in the presence of the Nirbhaya parents who had unfailingly attended each hearing for the past four long years. “It’s a victory for my family, I am very happy with the judgement,”said Nirbhaya’s father on the ruling.
The convict’s lawyer, AP Singh said that they will file review petition in the SC again. The laws allows the convicts the option of appealing twice against the Apex Court Judgement and also for presidential pardon.
The Supreme Court triple bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, which had reserved its order on March 27 after holding multiple hearings over 44 days, delivered the verdict at 2 pm on Friday.
The triple bench judgment said, “If ever a case called for hanging, this was it.”
“In the present case, there is not even a hint of hesitation… with respect to the aggravating circumstances outweighing the mitigating circumstances and I do not find any justification to convert the death sentence imposed by the courts below to ‘life imprisonment for the rest of the life’,” said the court.
“The gruesome offences were committed with highest viciousness. Human lust was allowed to take such a demonic form. The accused may not be hardened criminals; but the cruel manner in which the gang-rape was committed in the moving bus; iron rods were inserted in the private parts of the victim; and the coldness with which both the victims were thrown naked in cold wintery night of December, shocks the collective conscience of the society,” the judgment added.
Delivering the order, the judges stressed on the aspect of the DNA and said that the DNA of the accused has been matched with the victim and admitted that there is a manipulation by the investigating team during investigation.
Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Bhanumathi, one of the judge in the triple bench laid emphasis on the promotion of gender sensitization and said it has to be promoted by the media and other platforms. “Bearing in mind all principles, a crime like this cannot be looked at with magnanimity. The ordinary background of the accused cannot be treated as mitigating factors. The case is rarest of rare case. It is a matter of human rights now. Stringent legislations cannot be only way to stop these crimes. Gender sensitisation has to be promoted through media and other platforms. Everyone should fight for gender equality and justice,” she said.
Referring to the effect of the rape and murder in the conscience of society, the judgement said, “The incident of gang-rape on the night of 16.12.2012 in the capital sparked public protest not only in Delhi but nation-wide. We live in a civilized society where law and order is supreme and the citizens enjoy inviolable fundamental human rights. But when the incident of gang-rape like the present one surfaces, it causes ripples in the conscience of society and serious doubts are raised as to whether we really live in a civilized society and whether both men and women feel the same sense of liberty and freedom which they should have felt in the ordinary course of a civilized society, driven by rule of law.
“Certainly, whenever such grave violations of human dignity come to fore, an unknown sense of insecurity and helplessness grabs the entire society, women in particular, and the only succour people look for, is the State to take command of the situation and remedy it effectively.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]