Dec 16 gangrape convicts sought to kill, HC told

Delhi Police Thursday told the Delhi High Court hearing the confirmation of the death penalty awarded to four convicts in the Dec 16, 2012 gangrape case that a conspiracy was hatched to commit rape and then kill the victim.

Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan, appearing for police, also told a division bench of Justice Reva Khetrapal and Justice Pratibha Rani that the claim of the accused before the trial court that they were not present at the time of incident was false.

"The manner of the crime, the nature of weapon used and the fact that they (the victim and the man accompanying her) were thrown out of the bus in naked condition in the cold night to die, can leave no iota of doubt in court's mind that there was an intention of murder," Krishnan said.

He added: "The victim and her male friend were lured into the bus as they were made to believe that it was a bus of carriage...."

The prosecutor said the "gruesome nature of injury" on the 23-year-old student of physiotherapy, who was returning home with a male friend after having watched a movie, only reflected the intention of murder.

"There was also a clear intention to kill the victim. I wish the English language had words to describe the injury better than 'brutal' and 'grotesque'. 'Brutality' and 'grievous' are not enough to describe the act," Krishnan said.

Krishnan also told the court that he would argue Friday on the trial court's sentence awarded to the convicts and conclude his arguments before the court's lunch break.

To this, the bench said that after the prosecutor concludes his argument, defence counsel M.L. Sharma, appearing for accused Mukesh and Pawan Gupta, will begin his arguments.

The proxy counsel, who appeared on behalf of Sharma, however, said that Sharma would be available for arguments only Tuesday.

On his contention, the bench said: "If he will not argue the case, we will close it. He can move the Supreme Court against our order."

The trial court Sep 13 awarded the death sentence to Mukesh, 26, Akshay Thakur, 28, Pawan Gupta, 19, and Vinay Sharma, 20, convicted in the case, and referred the case to the high court for confirmation of their sentence.

The woman was brutally gangraped in a moving bus by six people, including a juvenile. The accused then threw her and her male companion out of the vehicle, stripped of clothing, to die by the roadside on the cold December night.

The woman died of grave intestinal injuries Dec 29 at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where she was airlifted for specialised treatment.

One of the six accused was found dead in a cell in Delhi's Tihar Jail. A juvenile involved in the crime was Aug 31 sent by the Juvenile Justice Board to a reform home for three years, the maximum term under the juvenile law.