MUKESH & ANR VS STATE FOR NCT OF DELHI & ORS (NIRBHAYA RAPE CASE)

Citation:

(2017) 6 SCC 1

Bench:

Dipak Misra, R. Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan

Introduction:

This case was the reason for the outcry of the nation and various candlelight marches and protests against the government, India’s image was always has been in doubt in the case of women’s safety but this case became a significant incident to prove that women’s are not safe in India.

And this outrage was also covered by international media and affected the image of India in front of the whole world.

Facts:

On the 16^th of December, 2012 a girl Nirbhaya and her friend were coming back from a movie and they boarded on a bus at Munirka Bus stand where 6 other passengers were also there, five of them were adult and one was juvenile and just to satisfy their unnatural whims and sadistic pleasures they raped her and an iron rod was inserted in her private part and left her to die.

When she reached the hospital she was in very critical condition and for better treatment, she was taken to Singapore but while taking her to Singapore but she died.

The very next day a huge outcry broke in India regarding this case and many candlelight marches were and solidarity and protest were made and this case acted as the ignition for the fire of public outrage because this case cleared a point that women were still not safe in India, but this the whole world had framed opinion about India.

And police identified four accused namely, Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, and Pawan Gupta, all accused were arrested and a fast-track Court to deal with this case, in the month of February the charges were framed against all the accused and one of the accused Ram Singh committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

Judgement:

In the month of August and September, the proceedings in Trial Court were concluded against four accused and they were identified by a friend of Nirbhaya and they were found guilty of 13 offenses including gang rape and murder.

The juvenile was also held guilty of murder and rape and was sent to Probation home for three years.

On September 13 the Court sentenced the Four adult convicts to death and on September 23 the High Court begins hearing the death sentence reference sent by the trial Court.

The High Court held that the present case is rearest to the rear case and the offense which was committed in an extremely fiendish, demoniac, barbaric, and nefarious manner so the Death penalty was upheld by the High Court, and the appeals of the accused were dismissed.

And after this case, the definition of rape was also changed under The Criminal Law(Amendment) Act, 2013 which gave broader meaning to the term rape.