Nirbhaya gangrape: Will SC today uphold death sentence for convicts?

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will decide today whether to uphold the death penalty for the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case even as Nirbhaya's parents said that it is time she got justice.
The Supreme Court will today hear an appeal filed by four convicts - Akshay, Pawan, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh - who challenged the Delhi High Court's confirmation of the death sentence handed to them by a trial court in 2013.
"Only the death penalty (will do) for culprits now, it should not be denied," said Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi.
"We have full faith in the judicial system and I am sure that the Supreme Court will announce death sentence in its verdict for the guilty. I am sure the Supreme Court will give justice to my daughter. This will set an example for the world," she added
On December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya, the 23-year-old paramedic, was raped and brutalised with an iron rod on a moving bus in Delhi. She and her male friend were then thrown out of the bus. Nirbhaya lost her battle for life in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
"Leave the Supreme Court, even God will not forgive such people. They will be awarded death sentence," said Nirbhaya's father.
Of the six accused, Ram Singh hanged himself in prison, while another, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August last year and will serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.
When the Delhi high court rejected the convicts' appeal in 2014, it said "debauchery, avarice, profligacy and viciousness appear to be the compelling forces" behind the crime. The court also said the crime was "completely recvolting" and "indubitably been committed in an extremely fiendish, demoniac, barbaric and nefarious manner."
Today's apex court appeal is being heard by a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and comprising Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.
It is being expected that the Supreme Court would not grant relief to the accused as Justice Dipak Misra doesn't hesitate to give a death sentence and is exceedingly sensitive to women's rights and liberties, ANI news agency said today.
On March 27, the apex court had reserved its verdict on the appeal of four convicts. In addition to dealing with the challenge to the Delhi high court conviction, the apex court was also deliberating on the actual sentence to the convicts.
Senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, also an amicus curiae, had said that option of awarding jail term for the whole life to these convicts may also be considered. Some said the trial court did not separately consider "mitigating" circumstances of each convict while sending them to the gallows.
Delhi Police had sought capital punishment for the convicts, while the defence counsel had said they deserved leniency considering their poor family background and young age. Senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, also an amicus curiae, had said that option of awarding jail term for the whole life to these convicts may also be considered.
The police had told the bench that the horrific crime committed by these men warranted death penalty and the test of being a "rarest of rare" case was satisfied in this matter and the court should also consider the effect of crime committed by them on the victim and the society at large.