SC defers hearing for review of verdict upholding death of four in Nirbhaya case

New Delhi, Nov 13 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday deferred hearing on the plea by Mukesh Singh - one of the accused in the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang rape case - for recall of a May 5 verdict upholding his death sentence.

The top court by its May 5 verdict had upheld the death sentences of all four convicts in the fatal 2012 gang rape of a paramedical student in a moving bus. Upholding the death sentence, the court had described the crime as "rarest of rare".

The next hearing will take place on December 12.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan deferred the hearing and the bench was told that the other three accused too were moving the court for review of the May 5 verdict.

The top court by its May 5 verdict had upheld the death sentence of Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.

The four were convicted for raping and assaulting the 23-year-old paramedical student inside a moving bus on December 16, 2012 which led to her death due to internal injuries 13 days later in a Singapore hospital.

The rapists, six in all, pounced on the young woman who had boarded the bus with her boyfriend to go home after seeing a movie.

After committing the crime, they dumped both on the side of a road. Some onlookers alerted the police. The sheer brutality of the crime led to nationwide revulsion -- and street protests.

A fifth accused, Ram Singh, committed suicide in the Tihar Central Jail here. The sixth, a juvenile, who was accused of ripping apart the woman's intestines, was sent to a correction home and has been released after serving his probation period.

Taking note of the serious injuries and the severe nature of the offence, the judges said they were upholding the death sentence first pronounced by a lower court and upheld by the Delhi High Court.