Saturday 15 March 2014

Supreme Court stays death penalty of two Delhi gang-rape convicts

Supreme Court stays death penalty of two Delhi gang-rape convicts
New Delhi The Supreme Court has stayed the death penalty of two of the four men convicted for the gruesome gang-rape and murder of a young medical student in a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012.

A special bench of Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh stayed the execution of the death sentence till March 31.

"We stay the execution of the sentences of Pawan and Mukesh till March 31, 2014. We direct the registry to take this matter before the chief justice for registering before an appropriate bench. We direct the court registry to furnish a copy of this order to prison authorities forthwith," said Justice Desai.

Of the four convicted men, only Mukesh and Pawan had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence for the four men convicted by a trial court. 

On Thursday, the Delhi High Court while confirming the death sentence, had said the crime was "premeditated" and "callous" and one that "left an indelible scar on the social order."

The court had rejected the appeal of the four men - Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Akshay Thakur - against the trial court order, saying to extend a "protective arm to the convicts would be both unnatural and ludicrous."

On December 16, 2012, the 23-year-old student and a male friend were attacked by six men after they boarded a private bus while going home from the cinema. Her friend was thrown to the back of the bus after being battered with an iron rod, which was later used to brutally violate her. The couple was then thrown from the bus.

The young woman died from her injuries 13 days later. 

Four of her attackers were convicted last September after the case was fast-tracked, while a juvenile was sentenced to three years in a detention centre. A sixth man, Ram Singh, was found dead in jail in March last year.

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