Supreme Court: Final arguments on appeals

Final arguments began on Monday in the Supreme Court in the appeals filed by four accused in the Nirbhaya gang rape case seeking to quash the Delhi high court verdict confirming the death sentence awarded to them for the December 16, 2012, incident in the capital.

The convicts, Vinay Sharma (21), Akshay Thakur (29), Mukesh (27) and Pawan Gupta (20) were awarded death sentence and the apex court had stayed their execution. The Delhi high court had upheld their conviction and award of death penalty by terming the offence as “unparallelled in the history of criminal jurisprudence” and said the “exemplary punishment” was the need of the hour.

Counsle M.L. Sharma traced the genesis of the case before a three-judge bench of Justices Dipak Misra, V. Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph and pleaded for setting aside the high court verdict. He argued that there was no “substance or material piece of evidence” and there were contradictions in the depositions of the victim and her friend.