The Supreme Court will continue the special hearing of the Nirbhaya gang rape case on Monday. The four convicts Akshay, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Mukesh has challenged the death sentence given to them by the Delhi High Court. In the case, a special hearing was arranged on Saturday.
Earlier, in the last hearing on November 7, Raju Ramachandran, the apex court’s Amicus Curiae in the case, had asked the Supreme Court to relieve the accused of the death penalty. He mentioned six ‘fundamental’ errors committed by the trial court while awarding death sentences, including not taking the mitigating circumstances of the accused persons into consideration and not hearing their sides in person on their punishment.
Two of the 4 convicts had earlier written to Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice Deepak Mishra. The letters had stated that they did not approve of the defence counsel provided by the court as they had already given statements against the convicts in the media, before the hearing. The convicts had been awarded the death penalty in September 2013.
Six people, including a juvenile, had brutally assaulted the woman in a moving bus while she was travelling with her male friend in Delhi on December 16, 2012. Later, they threw out the victim and her friend at an isolated spot. While undergoing medical treatment, she died in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012, triggering nation-wide protests that resulted in giving more teeth to laws related to rape and other forms of sexual harassment.
