Should Nirbhaya rapists be spared death? SC to decide tomorrow

Judgement to be given by 3-man Bench led by CJI

The Supreme Court is set to pronounce its judgement in the Review petitions filed by the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case, on July 9. The judgment will be delivered by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan. Justice Bhushan has penned the judgement for the Bench.

The review petitions challenge the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on May 5, 2017 confirming death penalty for all the four accused. The Court had reserved its judgement in the matter on May 4 this year after hearing the arguments on behalf of the convicts.

It all started on the fateful day of December 16, 2012, when the four appellants along with the main accused, the late Ram Singh, and the juvenile accused took out a bus for a ‘joyride’ as was their routine on Sunday evenings.

The bus, which was used to transport school children, was also used for such unlicensed trips in which rides were offered to people waiting for public transport late in the evening. The first passenger was a carpenter who was beaten up and robbed of his belongings before being thrown out in the cold night.

The accused had then put up a clever masquerade with three of them posing as passengers in the bus when the victim and her friend, who were trying to get to Dwarka, were lured into the bus by the juvenile at Munirka bus stop.