Delhi HC confirms death sentence for Dec 16 gangrape convicts

The republic News Network, 13 March 2014 , New Delhi: The Delhi High Court confirmed the death sentence of the four convicts in the December 16, 2012 gang-rape on Thursday.

The verdict was pronounced by the division bench of the Justice Reva Khetrapal and Justice Pratibha Rani.

The 23-year-old girl was brutally raped by six men including a juvenile in a moving bus after she was returning home with her friend. The convicts then stripped her and threw her and her friend out of the bus on the cold December night.

After struggling with fatal injuries for almost a fortnight, the girl lost the battle of life on December 29, 2012 at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where was airlifted by the government for special treatment.

One of the six accused committed suicide in Delhi’s Tihar jail. The juvenile who was involved in the heinous crime was sent to Reformation house for three year by the Juvenile Justice Board on August 31, 2013. He was given maximum punishment under the juvenile law, however, the decision sparked a protest by the people, stating that a juvenile who can commit such crime should not be shown mercy and should be given same punishment as other accused.

The trail court on September 2013 gave the death sentence to the remaining four convict and had referred the case to the high court to confirm the sentence.

The Delhi police had filed the chargesheet on January 3, 2013