Supreme Court upholds death penalty in Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case
New Delhi, July 9 (IBNS) : The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence against three of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, media reports said.
The convicts had filed review pleas before the top court, seeking the death sentence to be reduced to life term.
A three-judge bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Bhanumathi, headed by Chief Justice pronounced the verdict.
The fourth death-row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh did not file a review petition against the apex court's May 5, 2017 judgment, which upheld a Delhi High Court ruling confirming the death sentence for the adult convicts.
One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail.
While another accused, the juvenile, was convicted by a juvenile justice board but was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped by six youths after she boarded a bus with her male friend in New Delhi.
The rapists also severely assaulted her before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
The incident triggered a nationwide outrage and led to tougher anti-rape laws in India even though cases of sexual violence against women continued unabated.
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