SC reserves order on review plea by 2 death row convicts in Dec 16 gangrape case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on the plea of two condemned convicts --Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta -- seeking a review of the 2017 verdict by which they, along with two others, were awarded death penalty in the sensational December 16, 2012 gangrape cum murder case in New Delhi.

The apex court had on May 5, 2017, upheld the verdict of the Delhi High Court and the trial court awarding the capital punishment to four convicts--Mukesh (29), Pawan (22), Vinay Sharma (23) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) for gangraping a 23-year-old student inside a moving bus in South Delhi.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan heard the arguments on behalf of condemned convicts Vinay and Pawan. It asked senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, representing Delhi Police, and lawyer AP Singh, counsel for the two convicts, to file their written submissions by next Tuesday.

The bench had earlier reserved its verdict on the review petition filed by convict Mukesh. The review petition on behalf of Akshay is yet to be filed. The court has granted three weeks time to him to file the petition.

The paramedic student was gangraped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by a gang of six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road naked. She succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

Another accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail, while a convicted juvenile has come out of the reformation home after serving a three-year term.