The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of four convicts in the December 16, 2012 gang-rape case.
A division bench of Justice Reva Khetrapal and Justice Pratibha Rani also dismissed the appeals of the four convicts challenging the trial court verdict awarding them death penalty.
Welcoming the HC’s decision, the father of the victim hoped it would act as a deterrent in the future.
Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, meanwhile, pointed out that now it is to be seen how soon the Supreme Court and the President finalise the decision. The perpetrators will be hanged to death one day, added Bedi.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gang-raped, and brutally sexually assaulted by six men, including a juvenile, in a moving bus. The accused then threw her and her male companion out of the vehicle, stripped of clothing, to die by the roadside on the cold December night.
The woman died of grave intestinal injuries on December 29, 2012 at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where she was airlifted for specialised treatment.
One of the six accused was found dead in a cell in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. A juvenile involved in the crime was on August 31, 2013 sent by the Juvenile Justice Board to a reform home for three years, the maximum term under the juvenile law.
The trial court had on September 13, 2013 awarded the death sentence to Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20).
The court had then referred the case to the high court for confirmation of the sentence.
The chargesheet was filed on January 03 last year.
