TAP TO UNMUTE

New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday has upheld the death penalty awarded to the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape case that shook the nation on the night of December 16, 2012.

The apex court gave its verdict on the death sentence given to the convicts – Mukesh, Pawan, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar – who appealed in the apex court against the capital punishment awarded to them by the trial court and upheld by the Delhi High Court on March 13, 2014.

A bench comprising of Justices Deepak Misra, Bhanumathi and Ashok Bhushan read out the judgement. The apex court said, "Taking the serious injuries, the severe nature of offence committed by the convicts in consideration, we are upholding the sentence."

Justice Mishra said, "It was a devastating hour of darkness for the 23-year-old paramedic (Jyoti Singh). The victim's parts were ruptured to give vent to their sexual desires."

Read: Recollecting Nirbhaya: A crime that became the nation's grief

"It was a brutal diabolical barbaric act. The entire intestine was perforated with insertion of rods and there were bite marks on the breast of the victim which shows the mental perversion of the accused," the apex court said in its judgment.

She died due to sepsis which happened because of insertion of rod repeatedly. They had anal sex with her and forced her to have oral sex. This is humanly inconceivable. They only wanted to ravish her for their sadistic pleasure, the judgment read.

"It's a tsunami of shock in the minds of the collective and destroyed humanity. Death for all four. Compelled to arrive aggravating circumstances, outlay the mitigating circumstances," he said.

Nature and manner of the crime devastated social trust, it falls in 'rarest of rare' category, warranting death penalty, read the judgement.

"It's a victory for my family,I am very happy with the judgement," said the father of the victim.

While, the defending lawyer A P Singh said, "Justice is not done, we will file review petition after reading the order."

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"Just to send a message in the society, you cannot hang somebody. Travesty of human rights," he said.

The order was read out in front of the family members of the victim present in the court.

Earlier today, victim Jyoti Singh’s mother said that they hope justice is given to their daughter. “We have faith in the judicial system but the verdict should have been announced long ago.” On the night of December 16, 2012, in a case that evoked anger across the nation, six people gang raped the 23-year-old in a moving bus and used an iron rod to inflict gruesome internal and external injuries on her, which she succumbed to on December 29.

Her friend was assaulted as well, and the convicts then tried to run both of them over with the bus.

The prime accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail in March 2013, while the teenager involved was sent to a juvenile correction facility and was released in 2015.

Read: 4 Years After Outrage, India's Nirbhayas Still Unsafe

The Delhi Police appealed for a death sentence for the men involved, on the basis that the extreme cruelty with which they acted made the case "rarest of the rare". The defence counsel however, appealed for leniency on the grounds of their poor background and relatively young age.

Ahead of the verdict in a landmark case, the victim's mother said, "We have faith in judicial system but it should not have taken so long."

"Giving a sentence is not the punishment, those men should be hanged, then only it is justice for me," said the victim's father.