High Court upholds death sentences in Delhi rape case

Bench points to "brutality of the crime and the grotesque and diabolical way it was committed"

This file combo photo shows Delhi gangrape case convicts (clockwise from left) Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta (face covered), Akshay Thakur and Mukesh Singh.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of all four convicts in the December 16, 2012, gang-rape and murder of a physiotherapy student.

Dismissing the appeals of the four convicts — Akshay Kumar Singh, Mukesh, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta — for commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment, a Division Bench of Justices Reva Khetrapal and Pratibha Rani said “rage of the society would not be satisfied...and that it is a case of the gravest crime of extreme brutality.”

Reacting to the ruling, the mother of the 23-year-old victim said: “We have full faith in the judicial system of our country and had expected this verdict. But we will be fully satisfied only when the convicts meet their ultimate fate.”

Arguing that the convicts were young, had no antecedents and came from a poor socio-economic background, their counsel sought commutation of the death penalty on these mitigating circumstances.

They submitted that there was hope of reforming them.

But dismissing the argument, the Bench said: “We are constrained to hold that the mitigating circumstances… fade into insignificance in the light of the aggravating circumstances.” The Bench pointed out the “depravity of the mind of the convicts, the brutality of the crime and the grotesque and diabolical way it was committed”.

A fast-track court had on September 13, 2013 awarded death sentence to the four convicts.