The 2012 Delhi gang murder and rape event included a brutal attack and rape that took place on December 16, 2012. On a private bus that she and her male companion had boarded, a 23-year-old woman was attacked, gang-raped, and brutalized.
Six males, including the driver, were on the bus when the woman was raped and her friend was beaten. Eleven days after the attack, she was admitted to a Singaporean hospital for emergency care. Regretfully, following two days of care, she passed away. This incident attracted international attention and was strongly denounced both in India and elsewhere.
nirbhaya case summary
Nirbhaya Case Facts:
- One frigid December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old woman and her buddy went to the movies. They took an auto to the Munirka bus terminal after the play ended at 8:30 p.m., when they boarded a white chartered bus headed for Dwarka.
- There were already six individuals inside the bus when the lights abruptly went out.
- The woman’s companion was being abused by three men aboard the bus, which resulted in a fight when her friend was struck severely with an iron rod.
- Following their robbery of the couple, the six accused brought the woman to the back of the bus where they viciously raped her again.
- Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh, Ram Singh, and the Juvenile in Conflict with Law (Identity protected) were the six accused in this case.
Nirbhaya Case Issues:
- Are Section 120(B) IPC (Criminal conspiracy), Section 365 IPC (kidnapping or abduction), Section 366 IPC, Section 307 IPC (Attempt to murder), Section 376(2)(g) IPC (Gang rape), Section 396 IPC (Dacoity with murder), Section 302 IPC (Murder), Section 395 IPC (Punishment for dacoity), Section 397 IPC (Robbery or Dacoity attempting to cause death or grievous hurt), Section 201 IPC (Disappearing evidence of the Offense), and Section 412 IPC (Offense against Property) accusations against the convicted parties valid?
- Can a minor be found guilty of the same offenses as an adult?
- Whether they be given the death penalty or a life sentence in jail?
Contentions by the Petitioner:
- The learned council argues that the judges shouldn’t rely solely on the victim’s blood report and DNA because the woman lost a significant amount of blood during the transfusion, which could affect the DNA profile.
- The learned council asserted that, given the victim’s terrible circumstances, she was unable to make a declaration of death.
- Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar, two convicted men, continue to argue that they were not aboard the bus at the time of the incident and that their family members backed them.
- Therefore, in exceptional circumstances, death should always be granted, while in other cases, life in prison should be preferred. The learned council also argues that since the victim’s uterus was uninjured, the iron rod was not utilized to introduce it into her virginal. An iron rod was not used for the penetration if it occurred since it would first injure the uterus and subsequently the intestine.
Contentions by the Respondent:
- The council said that since this case falls under the category of “rarest of the rarest cases,” the optimum course of action is capital punishment.
- The minor accused should be prosecuted alongside the other four accused parties because the offense was serious and the minor should not be granted any leniency.
- The council stated that there is sufficient evidence to punish the accused.
nirbhaya case judgment:
- The nirbhaya case judge name were NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R. Banumathi, and Ashok Bhushan. It was a five-judge bench deciding the case.
- On March 19, 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the Delhi High Court’s sentence verdict in the Nirbhaya Rape Case, stating that the crime was a “rarest of the rare” and that it had shaken the nation’s conscience. On March 20, 2020, at 6 a.m., the Supreme Court rejected the four convicts’ mercy plea and upheld their death sentences.
nirbhaya case criminal punishment: Under Section 120(B) IPC, Section 365 IPC, Section 366 IPC, Section 307 IPC, Section 376(2)(g) IPC, Section 396 IPC, Section 302 IPC, Section 395 IPC, Section 397 IPC, Section 201 IPC, and Section 412 IPC the convicts were penalized.
Major Changes in the Criminal Justice System
- A number of irregularities in the legal system were exposed by the Nirbhaya rape case, which also resulted in important reforms.
- The definition of rape was expanded to include new offenses such as stalking, acid attacks, and voyeurism by the Criminal Amendment Act of 2013 (Anti-Rape Act).
- The minimum punishment for rape was raised, particularly in situations when the victim was left in a vegetative state or died.
- It was decided that victim characteristics had no bearing on rape charges.
- In addition, the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015 addressed the issue of juvenile offenders by lowering the age at which violent crimes like rape can be tried as adults from 18 to 16.
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