DEATH SENTENCE FOR DELHI
RAPISTS
Death sentence was today
awarded to the four convicts in the sensational December 16 gangrape-
cum-murder case by a court here which said the "beastly" and
"hair-raising" manner in which the crime was committed against a
23-year-old girl falls in the rarest of rare category. "Accordingly, the
convicts be hanged by neck till they are dead," Additional Sessions Judge
Yogesh Khanna said after observing that the inhuman and ghastly acts of the
convicts shocked the collective conscience of the nation and deserve exemplary
punishment, which was pronounced nine months after an agonising wait. The
victim's family, which had expressed dissatisfaction when the sixth accused, a
juvenile, was convicted and sentenced to a maximum of three years in a
reformation home by the Juvenile Justice Board, today heaved a sigh of relief
on hearing the death penalty for the four adult convicts. "'Halak mein
saans atki thi, jo ab bahar nikli hai. Mein dhanywaad karti hu desh ke logon ka
aur media ka' (We were waiting with bated breath, now we are relieved. I thank
the people of my country and the media)," the victim's mother said while
expressing satisfaction with the death penalty given to the convicts, which the
family had been demanding. Delivering his 20-page order in a packed courtroom,
the judge noted that the "ghastly acts" of Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur
(28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20) requires withdrawal of the
"protective arm of the community from around them". "The crime
of such nature against a helpless woman, per se, require exemplary punishment.
I may leave here while saying the gravity of the incident depicts the hair-raising
beastly and unparalleled behaviour. "Subjecting of the prosecutrix to
inhuman acts of torture before her death had not only shocked the collective
conscience but calls for withdrawal of the protective arm of the community from
around the convicts. This ghastly act of the convicts definitely fits this case
in the bracket of rarest of rare cases," the judge said. The court said
"the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances in
the case." Hearing that they have been sent to gallows, a shocked Vinay
started crying while the other three-Mukesh, Pawan and Akshay-sought mercy. The
death penalty reference has been sent to the Delhi High Court for confirmation.
The "severity" of
the injuries and the "unprovoked" suffering inflicted upon the
"defenceless" victim were relied upon by the court while handing down
the capital punishment. "Convicts in pursuance of their conspiracy lured
the victims into the bus, brutally gangraped the prosecutrix, inflicted inhuman
torture and threw the defenceless victims out of the moving bus in naked
condition, profusely bleeding in a cold winter night; their unprovoked crime
demonstrated exceptional depravity of mind. "Her intestines were so
severely damaged and the suffering inflicted on the prosecutrix was unparalleled.
The brutality caused to her internal organs is extreme as is evident from the
medical evidence on record and hence the act of convicts call for extreme
penalty," it said. Weighing the factors against and in favour of the
convicts in deciding the punishment, the court said the aggravating
circumstances are that the offence was committed in an extremely brutal,
grotesque, diabolical, revolting and thus dastardly manner so as to arouse
intense and extreme indignation of society. He said the manner of crime
demonstrated exceptional depravity and extreme brutality by which extreme
misery was inflicted upon the girl before her death leading to grave impact on
social order. The mitigating circumstances noted by the judge included the
young age of the convicts, their socio economic status, citing which they had
sought a chance for reformation, and their clean antecedents. The court
concluded that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating
circumstances.
The convicts were awarded
death sentence for the offence of murder and life term for gangraping the girl.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 55,000 on each of them. Apart from murder
and gangrape of the victim, the four men were also convicted on September 10
for attempting to kill her male friend, as well as kidnapping and robbing them.
Ram Singh (34) was found dead in the prison cell in March and proceedings
against him were abated. The juvenile accused was on August 31 convicted and
sentenced to a maximum of three years in a reformation home. The incident had
shook the nation's conscience and sparked massive protests. It had prompted a
number of steps by the Centre and the Delhi government to ensure safety of
women, curb such incidents and facilitate quick disposal of such cases. The
court rejected the plea of Mukesh that he had helped the system by admitting
his presence in the bus at the time of the incident and said "it is
probably to seek misplaced mercy as he took this contradictory stand in his
statement under section 313 CrPC to save himself after he found the chain of
circumstances being proved against him too."
RAREST OF THE RARE
The ghastly act of the
convicts in the December 16 gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old girl
"definitely fits in the bracket of rarest of rare" case, the Delhi
court today said while sending the four convicts to the gallows. "...the
gravity of the incident depicts the hair-raising beastly and unparalleled
behaviour. The subjecting of the victim to inhuman acts of torture before her
death had not only shocked the collective conscience but calls for the
withdrawal of the protective arm of the community around the convicts.
"This ghastly act of the convicts definitely fits this case in the bracket
of rarest of rare cases," Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna said
while awarding death penalty to Mukesh, Akshay, Vinay and Pawan. Observing that
the court has to look into the factors like "society's abhorrence, extreme
indignation and antipathy to certain types of cases", like the present
case, the court said "crime of such nature against a helpless woman, per
se, require exemplary punishment." He also said the criminal justice
system must instill confidence in the minds of people, especially the women.
"The facts show that the entire intestine of the victim was perforated,
sprayed and cut open due to repeated insertions of rods and hands. The
convicts, in the most barbaric manner, pulled out her internal organs with
their bare hands as well as by the rods and caused her irreparable injuries,
thus exhibiting extreme mental perversion not worthy of human
condonation," the court said. The judge said "the unprovoked crime
demonstrated exceptional depravity of mind" of the convicts as they lured
the girl and her male friend into the bus, brutally gang raped her, inflicted
inhuman torture and threw the defenceless victims out of the moving bus in
naked condition, profusely bleeding in a cold winter night.
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