2012 Delhi gangrape case: Two death row convicts file plea in SC to review punishment

New Delhi: Two of the four death row convicts in the 16 December, 2012 gangrape and murder case on Friday moved the Supreme Court for review of its verdict upholding the capital punishment awarded to them. The review petition by convicts Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar Gupta came after the apex court on 12 December completed the hearing on the review plea filed by another death row convict Mukesh. A 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped on the intervening night of 16 December, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by a gang of six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out naked. She succumbed to her injuries on 29 December, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. [caption id=“attachment_4260801” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] The review plea, filed through advocate AP Singh for two of the convicts, claimed that death penalty was a premeditated and “cold-blooded killing” of a human being by the state in the name of justice. It said the investigation into the matter was not only flawed but also unreliable as many facts of the investigation pertaining to recording of the dying declaration of the victim. The apex court had on 12 December allowed the counsel to file review petition for another convict Akshay Singh and listed the matter for hearing on 22 January. The apex court had on 5 May upheld the death penalty to the four convicts - Mukesh (29), Pawan (22), Vinay Sharma (23) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31), saying the “brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature” of the crime could create a “tsunami of shock” to destroy a civilised society. Another accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail, while a convicted juvenile has come out of the reformation home after serving a three-year term.