Dec 16 gangrape: File in HC for confirmation of death penalty

A fast track court, which has sentenced four convicts in the December 16 gangrape and murder case to death, has sent the case file to the Delhi High Court for confirmation of the capital punishment.
Court sources said the case record relating to the conviction and death sentence of Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh has been referred to the high court.
It is mandatory for the trial court to refer a death penalty case to a high court for confirmation of sentence within 30 days of the pronouncment of the verdict.
Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna had held the four guilty on 13 counts including murder and gangrape of the 23-year-old paramedical student.

They were given death sentence by a court here which said the "beastly" and "hair-raising" manner in which the crime was committed against the girl falls in the rarest of rare category.
Ram Singh (34), who was one of the prime accused, was found dead in his cell in Tihar Jail in March and proceedings against were abated.

The sixth accused, a juvenile, who was most brutal among them, was on August 31 convicted and sentenced to a maximum of three years in a reformation home.
On the night of December 16, last year, Ram Singh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and the juvenile had gangraped the girl in a bus after luring her and her 28-year-old male friend, who was also assaulted, on board the vehicle, which was later found to be plying illegally on Delhi roads.

The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 in a Singapore hospital.