New Delhi: The Supreme Court upheld on Friday the death sentences of four men convicted in the brutal gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in Delhi in 2012, describing the crime as “a story of a different world” that sparked a “tsunami of shock”.
The court used words like “gruesome”, “gross”, “sadistic” and “beastly” in its 429-page, hard-hitting or-der, referred to the dying declaration of the victim and said the “brutal and demonic” crime had been proven beyond doubt.
“If ever a case called for hanging, this was it,” said the court, calling for concerted efforts to prevent such crimes. The young student was raped on a moving bus and left for dead near the airport by a gang of five men and a teenager. She had boarded the private bus while going home from a movie with a male friend, who was also wounded, on December 16, 2012. Also brutalised with an iron rod, she died of grievous internal injuries in a Singapore hospital 13 days later.
Applause broke out in the courtroom and many stood up in appreciation when the verdict was delivered.
“I am very satisfied. Today I am happy,” said the victim’s mother, who wept silently in the court. The victim’s father said: “I will finally sleep well tonight.”
While Justice Dipak Misra wrote the judgement for himself and Justice Ashok Bhushan, the lone woman judge in the apex court, Justice R. Banu-mathi wrote a separate and concurring verdict in which she said “if at all there was a case warranting (the) death sentence, it is this case which “shocked the collective conscience of the society”.
Convicts played with victim’s dignity: SC
The brutality of the attack, and her determination to survive long enough to identify her attackers, triggered large-scale angry street protests, forcing the government to enact stricter laws for sex crimes. The four men — Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh — were not in the court on Friday. A fifth man, the suspected ringleader, was found dead in jail in a suspected suicide in 2013, while the 17-year-old was sentenced to three years in a detention centre and has since been released.
The court said the devilish manner in which the convicts played with the victim’s dignity was humanly inconceivable. “At times I would feel weak, wanting to give up the fight. But then my daughter’s face would flash in front of my eyes and I would pull myself up,” the victim’s mother said.
The court also lauded the Delhi police for completing the investigation scientifically to bring the culprits to book.
The arduous four and half year journey
Following is the chronology of events in the December 16, 2012 gangrape-cum-murder case of the 23-year-old woman.
Dec 16, 2012
Paramedical student gangraped and brutally assaulted by six men in a private bus and thrown out of the moving vehicle along with her male friend.
Dec 17: Protests erupt demanding action against the accused.
Dec 17: Police identify four accused — bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta.
Dec 18: Ram Singh, three others arrested.
Dec 21: Delinquent juvenile nabbed from Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi. Victim's friend identifies Mukesh as one of the culprits. Police conduct raids in Haryana and Bihar to nab the sixth accused, Akshay Thakur.
Dec 21-22: Thakur arrested from Bihar. Victim records statement before the SDM in hospital.
Dec 25: Victim’s condition critical.
Dec 26: Following a cardiac arrest, victim flown to Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital by the government.
Dec 29: Victim succumbs to injuries. Police add murder charge in the FIR.
2013
Jan 2: The then CJI Altamas Kabir inaugurates fast track court for speedy trial in sexual offence cases.
Jan 17: FTC starts proceedings against the five adult accused.
Mar 11: Ram Singh commits suicide in Tihar jail.
Jul 11: JJB holds minor guilty of illegally confining and robbing a carpenter on December 16 night before allegedly taking part in the gangrape.
Aug 31: JJB convicts the minor for gangrape and murder and awards three-year term at probation home.
Sep 10: Court convicts Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan
Sep 13: Court awards death to all four convicts.
2014
Mar 13: HC upholds death penalty awarded to the four convicts.
2017
Feb 3: SC says it would hear the aspect of awarding death penalty to the convicts.
May 5:
SC upholds death penalty to four convicts, says the case falls under the category of ‘rarest of rare’ & the offence created “tsunami of shock”.
